Essay On Equality Of Income And Wealth

In America, there can be different views of inequality. In the article, “The upside of income inequality” – Gary S. Becker and Kevin M. Murphy. They

When people hear the word inequality they think of inequality as a circumstance just involving race, things like being unequal with another person cause of your skin color or cause of your traditions. However, inequality covers many other broad factors one factor other than race being income inequality. In “Inequality Has Been Going on Forever…but That Doesn’t Mean It’s Inevitable.” (The New York Times, 02.05.14), David Leonhardt points out that Income inequality has come to be extremely high, the middle class is shrinking while the rich become richer. This attitude is encouraged by various factors: society, taxation, and how much time has passed. The inequality is said to last for decades.

The American Dream, the dream that we earn a college degree, own our own home, take vacations and move up the social ladder. Is this achievable for all Americans? Some think yes, some think no, but we all agree that it involves social mobility. Social mobility is the movement up or down the social class ladder. Although there may be obstacles that slow the process of achieving social mobility, it is still achievable. Those failures and obstacles you encounter can only make you stronger.

Jay MacLeod’s book Ain’t No Making’ It is a treatise on social reproduction theory, that is, the ways in which class inequality is reproduced across generations, and is equally relevant and informative to understanding the cycle of poverty today as it was in 1987 when it was first published. The explanations of the life trajectories of the men studied in this book are especially important in light of the inflamed rhetoric and intense debate that characterize the interactions between the two distinct ideologies that have bifurcated the theorists of educational reform: Economically deterministic theories and the theories emphising the autonomy of the cultural level. Though the attempt of the author is to provide a perspective which allows for the simultaneous existence of the two theories. We will see that neither perspective can be said to be entirely endorsed by the conclusions found in Ain’t No Makin’ It.

For this assignment, I selected three articles; one each from Forbes and The Economist, and an article from the “Opposing Viewpoints in Context” section of Gale, written by Sisi Zhang. These pieces all speak to the same theme: racial wealth inequality is real and is exacerbated by poor education, increased incarceration, and public policy.

There are people who work 40 hours a week and are still in poverty; this is a highly prominent issue.The uneven distribution of wealth, known as wealth inequality, is a problem that plagues not only America but also the world. With wealth inequality, there are two main issues and one solution to those issues. The problems are that the wealth in America is unevenly distributed and there people in America who work 40 hours a week and still have very little money. Wealth inequality is the root of all problems faced in America.The solution to this problem is to slightly raise the minimum wage so the lower class will be able to gain wealth.

“The bottom 40% of Americans own almost nothing.” Said the video, Wealth Inequality In America. The lower class are scraping by and are not able to invest in stocks or other consuming items whether it deal with money or time. The video, Wealth Inequality in America also said, “The top 20% of Americans own almost everything.” The wealthy community should contribute more to the lower class, allowing more equality of wealth.

The income gap in America affects people, who live in this country. The issue has a strong impact in America’s society; in particular, the nutritional disparity between rich and poor people. In USA, the food gap becomes the top signal for the class distinction, but it used to be clothing or fashion. The food inequality in America is not only influencing the poverty, it is also cost hundreds of billions of dollar per year because of Non Communicable Diseases (NDCs) (Ferdman, 2014). In addition, many people think that wealthy consume more food so they are easy to get obesity, diabetes or heart disease. In fact, in America, the low-income groups have the highest rates in NDCs. According to the worldwide study, there are a connection between NCDs and the socio-economic levels link to the energy in America’s meals and the cost of meals. The American has average income spend less than $8 per person per day for their meals and beverages. Meanwhile, poor people just spend only $25 per person per week. This is a big gap in their cost of meal. The main cause is healthful diets cost more than unhealthful diets (Drewnowski & Darmon, 2005). Besides, America is the unhealthiest countries in the world.

America prides itself on being one of the most effective democratically governed counties. The idea of the American dream is that all people have equivalent political freedoms and a responsive government. However the effectiveness of social equality is being threatened by increasing inequality in the United States. Economic inequality in the US has expanded drastically. The wealth gap has had drastic changes over the past 35 years. What’s more, specifically, the rich have gotten a lot richer. Almost everybody who talk about it says that economic inequality must be reduced.

The American Dream is so essential to our country as it is an honor to reach your goals and make it a reality. The American Dream is the national ethos that people’s lives would be better and more abundant with many opportunities. The American Dream was more accessible to attain back in the days, however, changed over the years. Although the “American Dream” is still possible, many people, minorities are affected by the lack of improvement in social mobility in our society. The American Dream is still alive by being able to live a middle-class lifestyle and by obtaining it through perseverance and hard-work. Within social mobility, many people fail to have a sense of the realization of the American Dream because of the fewer advantages and more problems minorities have to struggle through. Therefore, our social class affects our ability to realize the American Dream because we face challenges to make ends meet, intersectionality and education because of high status.

The inequality in America has increased over time; the gap between the rich and the poor has become a problem that many Americans don’t see. Inequality is the extent of income which is distributed unequally among the citizenry. The inequality of the United has a large gap between the poor and the rich making it unfair to the population, the rich are becoming wealthier and the poor remain poor. The article “Of the 1%, By the 1%, For the 1%”, authored by Joseph E. Stiglitz describes that there is a 1 percent amount of American’s who are consuming about a quarter of the United States income in a year. Therefore, America’s inequality will continue to grow.

Income inequality has grown significantly during this past decades and this phenomenon continues to increase over the years. This problem is constantly discussed in the daily news all around the world. Several consequences of this increase of inequality between people leads to economic problems such as high unemployment rates, lack of work for young people, fall of demand for certain product. The gap between rich and poor is increasing, the rich are richer and the poor are poorer as a result politicians and economists try to adopt certain policies in order to reduce this gap. The United States exhibits a wide difference of wealth distribution between rich and poor people, which is larger than any other major developed country.

In the discussion of social inequality, one cannot leave out the sociological theories and models proposed by Karl Marx and Adam Smith. Generally, social inequality refers to the presence of unequal treatment, opportunities and rewards tied to people of various social standings within the hierarchy of a community group or society. Some common types of social inequality include wealth and income disparity as well as social class stratification. For Marx and Smith, both had explored the various types of social inequality in society.

All over the world, there is an obvious contrast between the living standards and lifestyle of the rich and the poor. Moreover, there is a large gap between the populations of poor and wealthy. This is known as the Wealth Gap, and it is caused by Wealth Inequality. Wealth Income/Inequality is defined as “The unequal distribution of assets within a population.” Wealth is defined as more than just the amount of income a person has, but instead the value of a person’s assets. And assets being the stuff that you own: your car, your house and your cash money is also an asset. It is the job of the government, leaders and citizens to ensure that the wealth and income is distributed equally among the population. However, when this fails due to corruption, discrimination among other causes the country is unable to move forward economically, further leading to poverty and civil unrest and other consequences.

In the Caribbean, each territory has a unique social stratification systems which have been developed over the past centuries. This encouraged the people of these many cultures within the region to advance their social status - or his/her ‘social well-being,’ and the status of their family through the movement of social mobility. In this paper, it is my contention that social mobility is possible in the Caribbean since it allows persons to move in the social stratification system; secondly – to briefly address the current situation of social mobility within the Caribbean region, specifically in the countries of Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Guyana. And finally, that social mobility has shaped better opportunities in the Caribbean. In order to support these claims, I will discuss the characterisitcs of social moblity, while providing the necessary examples.