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Economic Disparities In America Essay

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One of the founding ideals of America was that anyone could become someone in the new nation. Someone born poor could work their way to the type and become wealthy and have an effect on the country. People all over the world immigrated to chase this so called American Dream hoping for a better life. Today that dream is dead. At the end of World War II, prosperity in America was evenly divided up and down the entire income ladder. However, since the 1970s, things have changed to allow the economic disparity that has overcome America. The share of income earned by the top 1 percent has gone from 8 percent in 1974 to 18 percent in 2007. The shift of income towards the top has been sustained and increasing steadily from 1980 onwards. Unfortunately, …show more content…

As a millennial, my generation is always judged for being lazier, not as hardworking, and expecting everything on a silver platter. The book destroys that argument proving how to baby boomer generation destroyed the world we live in today. The economic plans of the 70's and 80's that repealed restrictions and gave us trickle-down economics were just the first in of many lists of problems. The government sold out the middle class and gave all the power and wealth to Wall Street. The Baby Boomers had nothing, but economic growth and never did anything to stop the bubble from exploding in 2007. All Congress did was give them a slap on the wrist and wrote them a large check to bail them out thus, solving nothing. There are people today still recovering from the recession who lost everything. The future for my generation is bleak. We are expected to go to college with no money, take out loans just so I can take classes, get a degree that isn't worth as much as I will have to pay for it, and then for the rest of my life slowly, but surely pay back these loans that hold me captive. Hacker and Pierson both believe it's not too late to fix the economic problems America will face, but until politicians hold the 1% percent accountable and create legislation that will rebuild the middle class the American Dream will only be just a forgotten memory of what

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