Taking advantage of people and selfish behavior is very evident in today’s world. Since the beginning of the 1970’s, income inequality has grown significantly. Income inequality has been a major problem in the U.S. historically and is a major problem in today’s society as well. These problems need to be addressed because it affects many aspects of life which include educational opportunities, economic growth, job creation and overall standard of living.
The problem with income inequality is that the majority of Americans can’t live their lives the way they want to. America’s workforce doesn’t make enough money to support the economy in a healthy way. According to the U.S. census data, about half of America’s population lives in poverty
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Following the Great Recession, “record-low interest rates were supposed to spur the housing market, making homes more affordable. While that is the case, housing prices have leveled off in recent years as the average American still doesn't have enough income to buy a home.” (Amadeo). Also the Fed kept the Treasury rates low. Unwillingly causing the top 10 percent to gain more of the stock market (even thought they already “own 91 percent of the wealth in stocks” (Anadeo)). All of these causes of income inequality can’t come without the …show more content…
Kids in low income families tend to go to low quality schools and are not able to go to college. This causes the workforce as a whole to be less productive. Now here is the real mind-bender. “As income inequality grows, more and more resources are concentrated in the hands of the wealthiest. So, the idea goes, the wealthiest are better able to steer policies in directions that protect inequality at the expense of growth.” (Plumer). This causes lower consumer spending. How are people supposed to buy things and make the economy grow if they can afford to buy anything because the company they work for is more worried about themselves profiting? Well people end up taking out bank loans and mortgage loans. Banks run off of other people’s money. The economy would not be able to survive without loans. “People at the lower end borrow more to keep afloat, while those at the top end have plenty to lend.”(Plumer). This is what causes economic recessions and credit
Unfortunately, by giving out more loans, the state banks had put more paper money into circulation, causing the value of the dollar to plummet. Inflation hurt the economy which
In this article by Sean Mcelwee(2014) he talks about why income inequality is the toughest issue America will face in the next few decades. In the article, Why income inequality is America’s biggest (and most difficult) problem, Mcelwee(2014) believes that after the studies he has seen, the most effective way to solve the policy issue of income inequality is by higher taxes on income and wealth. However, the rich would never buy into this solution, because it would take more of their wealth, when the wealthy are trying to maximize their money returns. Mcelwee (2014) also talks about how when a family is wealthy, money tends to stay in the family for 10-15 generations, which is also true for families with lower incomes as stated here by
People buy way over their head, and what they can afford, and end up defaulting on their loans. Which in turn makes it so banks are not getting their money back that they lent out. Unemployment also plays a role into it. Right now, unemployment rates are lower than the last couple years, but jobs also have been created due to the natural disasters we’ve experienced here in Texas, and Florida. Such as medical, and food services
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
This drove prices down, which decreased employment. Increased unemployment decreased consumption, creating a cycle that continued to weaken the structure of the U.S. economy. This cycle had massive effects on the economy, as reduced consumption diminished the monetary supply, leading to a decline in production levels and in GDP. Income inequality also related to issues with U.S. credit
Less money in circulation caused an immense degradation to credit, making it almost completely nonexistent for many Americans (Kelly). Less credit caused a decrease in the amount of money spent on commercial goods, which in turn hurt many businesses, both small and large-scale. While the stock market crash had quite a hefty impact on the average American, it isn't the only apparent cause of the Great
“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.
We need to make a difference and get everyone equal so we can all live our best lives. Income Inequality in the United States How unequal is the economy in the United States? Inequality has always existed in the U.S. but the gap between the rich and poor has never been as big as it is now. The rich never got torn down even when there were financial crashes, but the poor suffered a lot. Women made 82 cents for every $1 a man made, and African Americans made 78 cents for every $1 white people made, how equal is that?
Inequality is often associated with racial injustice, but actually goes beyond that and has created new ways for social inequality to exist among various circumstances in our country. It affects millions in terms of their way/ quality of life. In the United States and around the world, civilians struggle to receive adequate health care at the expense of their day jobs, hindering them from this as they cannot afford it. The middle has been struggling for decades over the same issues, yet permanent action has yet to transform the country. The issue of inequality has recinfoced itself in health care and income and continues to manifest itself in our society today leading to social problems in which we cannot escape making it an institutional
Wealth and Inequality in America Inequality 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.
3.1 How income inequality affect on people live in America. 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).
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.
In modern society, characterized by diversity rather than uniformity, people are more connected to one another by virtue of their differences” (Royce, 2015, p. 76). People are supposed to depend on each other, but when a small number of wealthier people exploit a larger group to the point of poverty a problem arises that needs to be
This can be explained in a sense that high levels of wealth inequality results in higher levels of poverty. Poverty is typically associated with increased social costs such as unemployment and crime rates which have negative implications on sustained economic growth. It is important
Social Class and Inequality: Video Reviews for Lesson Eight Introduction There is no denying that social inequality is getting worse in the US. The Gini index, which is the most widely used measurement of income disparity, used to be 34.6 in 1979; now it sits at above 40 (GINI Index for the United States, 2018). To put this into perspective, the number makes the US the 4th most unequal country—trailing behind Mexico, Chile and Turkey—in 37 major economies surveyed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD Income Distribution Database (IDD): Gini, poverty, income, Methods and Concepts, n.d.). What are the consequences of social inequality in developed countries like the US?