Importance Of Income Inequality In The United States

Classism is a major issue that plagues American society. Classism separates groups by their economic status in society. America is perceived to be a middle class society, however in reality the middle class does not hold majority of the nation’s wealth. Most of the nation’s wealth is held by 1% of the population in America which consists of 34% of the nation’s wealth, meanwhile “the richest 20% of Americans hold nearly 85% of the total household wealth in the country” (Adams et al, 2013, p. 151). American citizens that are a part of the upper class are privilege because they have access to majority of the resources.

Believing, only 1% of the world’s population possesses the majority of the wealth around the world and is therefore able to dictate the state of the global economy. The result is an unbalanced and stagnate situation for any individuals looking to improve their station in life. The cost of living and minimum wage are disproportionate to one another with the minimum wage rising at an exponentially smaller rate than the cost of living. Senator Baldwin stated, “We know that because of this loophole that the are many hedge fund and Wall Street millionaires that pay a lower tax rate than truck drivers, nurses, and teachers” (Washington Post). Occupy Wall Street is a subset of the global occupy movement, which most notably attempts to use occupation as its main method of protest.

The one percent are people of “old money” or large corporate owners who fail to see how their “walmarts” are tearing apart our American society. They tend to only worry about profit margins and how they can make the most out of their money instead of thinking of the 99% of the population.

65% for the “upper middle” bracket 19% of the U.S population. And a whopping 275% of taxes for the 1% of the U.S. These numbers undeniably show a non “equal” society but one out for the 1% and other high rollers. America isn’t protecting the people at the top nor the bottom.

Economic inequality is the uneven distribution of wealth and differences in economic security found in each individual in a specific country or region. Today, the topic is being discussed profusely by the American presidential candidates and by many writers around the world because of the beliefs of whether there should or should not be wealth redistribution policies put into action. Larry Schwartz, the author of “35 Soul-Crushing Facts about American Income Inequality”, makes a valid claim that economic inequality is the foundation of the problems that the entire American population face such as poverty and a hindrance of economic growth. To begin with, Schwartz has an exceptional argument that the high rate of economic inequality, like is

Lastly, Gilbert bring home a hard-hitting reason that this hype is unnecessary: "The U.S. middle class boasts among the highest disposable household incomes in the world. The average U.S. family has 38 percent more disposable household income than a family in Italy, 25 percent more than a family in France, and 20 percent more than a household in Germany, when adjusted for differences in purchasing power... With the average family’s disposable household income in the United States among the highest in the world, inequality is perceived less as a source of social friction between the “haves and the have-nots” than as an imbalance between those who have a lot and others who have even more". I would agree that this has become an issues between who has more than others rather than who has nothing and who has something. I definitely agree and have understood as Gilbert explains, poverty and inequality are two different things.

Statistically, the American Dream is perishing due to the rise of income inequality and the slowing of economic growth. Income inequality is a dominant problem in the United States. The top 1% of the United States occupies 20% of all the country's income, while the bottom 50% only obtains 12%. Since 1980, the average annual income of the top 1% has substantially increased from $344,000 to over one million dollars.

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.

After over two centuries of battling to understand its declared standards of general fairness, the United States still faces proceeding racial, gender orientation, and class difference. Inequality remains a source of extraordinary suffering and hostility over its causes and profound conflict over what can also, ought to be done to change it. In a general public that announces flexibility, independence, and unlimited portability, the determination of wild disparity along lines of race and gender is by all accounts an inconsistency. The period from Reconstruction through the Progressive Era, approximately 1870–1930, was one of extensive established in implications of citizenship, work, race, gender, and class relations owing to the withdrawal

Tax cuts and the middle class. The most important social class in America is shrinking at an alarming rate. The middle class, the driver of the economy is becoming few and are between. This is impart by stagnant wages and salaries for low skill jobs that need little to no education but also huge tax breaks for the tip top 1% makes the middle class pay for what is lost from them.

In 2007, wages and salaries, which constitute income in the country, went down from 70% all the way to 60% (Gornick & Jäntti, 2014). During this time, the income that is generated by the top 1 percent of American households has tripled from 6 percent all the way to 19 percent. This ever growing disparity is being aggravated by failures in policies and in particular, the inequality is being blamed on years of progressive tax decrease, regulatory, transfer along with failures in full-employment laws in recent

That This is simply the only logical solution and therefore the average person who is not privileged enough to be in this 1% should accept their fate. In turn, this only will encourage readers to find another alternative. In conclusion, David Noise is able to convey his point to the readers about the unevenly distributed power in our society. His encounter with this 1% only solidifies the seriousness of this matter and how it demands more attention. The style he uses to approach this subject is rather subdued and the reader to be attentive while reading his article.

Inequality has been around since man first started to gather in groups. Since the time of the hunter gathers into the middle ages. Today in the United States inequality is worse than it has ever been, even with the significant dip between the 1940s and the 1970s. The increase in inequality is not limited to the United States but it is happening the fastest here. We have to look at the different factors that have played a role in the increase which are: technology, the decline in manufacturing and increase in globalization, and government policy.

Throughout history Americans have experienced a decline in economic equality; the difference in earning between the rich and poor has steadily risen. This slow progression of the working class growing distant from the 1%, or those that hold the majority of wealth in America, is believed to have begun in 1973. Inegalitarians such as George Sher, a professor of philosophy at Rice University and author of “Equality for Inegalitarians”, agrees and is fighting to combat against this inequality by exploiting the truth about why he feels that the majority of Americans are not equal economically. In order to find a solution to this problem, he believes that we should be focused as a nation on opportunity, not equality.

This statistic is the bases for many people’s failure to believe in the American dream. Studies showed that in 2013, there was the widest wealth grope between the middle class and the upper class (1% of Americans). Factors such as our economy having large budget deficits and high levels of debt also contribute to no longer believing in this dream. The American dream has been becoming harder to reach a full-time job no longer provides us with the possibility to be financially stable. Narkus Jantti did a study where only about 8% American men start from the bottom fifth and rise to the top, and approximating 42% in the bottom fifth remain in the bottom when they become