Inequality Has Been Going On Forever

In the film, Inequality for All, we see how today’s economy is experiencing a difference in wage between the social classes. There is an enormous opening of income and wealth inequality in the U.S. as the wealthy people get more money and the poor people struggle for basic living standards. For example, in the year 2010, the usual 1% of people earn up to about 33 times more than the typical male employee. The film also explains how even in today’s economy, “the top 400 richest people have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans put together” (Inequality for All). The significant wealth of the U.S. is stable with the minority of people, contrasting with the period of the 1950s through 1980s. However in today’s economy, 70% of the U.S

Income Inequality or “wage gap” is a big topic for freedom fighters and liberals for the simple fact that it isn’t equal for everyone. Because the wage gap is so prominent it's one of the biggest “facts” that discrimination is still apart of everyday American society. The wage gap from these radical interest groups think the economy is get a dollar take a dollar instead of a free flow economy. This misguided idea of the economy is absolutely not true and isn’t at the fault of the Government, but the people.

Paul Krugman, an economics professor at Princeton, writes “Confronting Inequality” chapter 7 in his book. Equality in America is what makes America, what it stands for. Social and economic inequality still is a part of everyday life in America. Education is making parents struggle because they want to give them a good education; but also, health care for those who need it. Middle-class starts to scramble more every day while the high-class gets more prosperous. Inequality in America is creating trouble to the lives of Americans.

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.

Income inequality might be the biggest problem our new president will face. There are many reasons why it’s a problem in America. Income is a difference in opportunity chances if you have more money you have a better chance of getting a better job. Examples of income is are food drives in schools some people with income have trouble going to places like school, job, or stores when needed. There are many more problems than this. Income inequality is still a problem in America, but there are ways to fight against it.

The causes of inequality in the United States are diverse. The racial difference that exists in the United States has a major impact on the wage distribution, the blacks and Hispanics citizen are less respected than the white population. The other major cause of this inequality is the lack of high skilled people. There is a real problem of education level in the United States. The impacts of income inequality on the US population are also different. Income inequality had an enormous impact on the United States’ history with the Great Depression that occurred in 1929. The principal impact of income inequality is surely the poverty rate that increases in the United States because a lot of the income goes to the richest population. As explain in this paper there are a variety of different technics to calculate the inequality within a country, some methods are more reliable than others. The most commonly used method is the Gini coefficient, which can help to compare the level on inequality between countries. In order to reduce the inequality in the country, the government try to found some solutions. In the United States, an increase in minimum wage is one of the solutions to reduce the gap between rich and poor. Another issue is to tax more the wealthiest in the United States, this could help the poorest

The essay Inequality Undermines Democracy by Eduardo Porter discusses the income gap in today’s world. The first main point Porter describes how Americans are not concerned with the income gap even though it is wider than other developed countries. The United States government has expressed little concern over this issue as well since they have done little to anything to restrain the trend. I believe this has caused opportunities across classes to shrink and the middle class does not exist anymore. I would consider my family a working middle class and I hear my family talking about how the middle class has diminished and it is either the rich or the poor. This has made it very difficult on my family because all of their hard work is not being accounted for. Most importantly, I believe there is not a change or a movement in regards to the income gap because the

As the middle class continues to dissolve, the issue in America becomes more chaotic. The article, "The Inequality Hype", by Neil Gilbert, criticizes, quite simply, the hype on the income inequality between the classes in America. Although Gilbert does agree on the inequality present, he brings up many good points as to why this issue is more exaggerated than should be. Gilbert brings up the point that America is doing better than it believes to be doing according to recent data. Moreover, Gilbert explains, "Progressives tend to think that inequality is the story and that, as already noted, nearly everything wrong in U.S. society stems from it. ..Conservatives are less concerned about rising economic inequality than progressives. They accept inequality as the tribute that equality of opportunity grants to merit, productivity, and luck in the free market,

In the story “The Upside of Income Inequality”, Gary S. Becker and Kevin M. Murphy effectively express’s the importance and need for income inequality in our society. Furthermore, Holly Ellyatt’s newspaper article Income Inequality: Is It Good For Everyone? serves to also point out that economic success and greater productivity is linked to “income inequality”. Although it may seem extremely unfair for someone to make up to two hundred and fifty times as much money as someone else, this notion of “income inequality” actually benefits the society as a whole by encouraging others to work much harder in life and better themselves and their education.

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

When it comes to inequality, not many people think of it in terms of wealth. While wealth inequality has always been an issue in the United States, it has became more of a pressing matter in America since the late 1980’s, and has only continued

Nowadays, there is a huge gap of income and wealth inequality in the U.S. and that means the richer people are super rich while bottom people are struggling for basic living standard. There are some direct and explicit statistics from Inequality for All graphic package from which we can tell the phenomenon. In 2010, the typical 1% people earn 33 times of typical male workers but in 1978 the ratio is tenth comparing the male workers with the “1%” people. Also, it says “Today, the top 400 richest people have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans put together” (Inequality for All). This shows considerable wealth of the U.S. is controlled in the minority people, which is totally unlike the period of 1950s through 1980s. Why has inequality been widening? As we see the diagram from the graphic package, GDP was spectacularly booming from late 1980s. However, the growth of wages and productivity was almost stagnated ever since 1970s. At that times, economic globalization was taken place deeply and manufacture was moved from developed countries like America to developing countries like South Korea and Japan while financial capital field was tended to be more powerful.

Based on freedom and equality, America is today the country the most unequal amongst developed countries.

As much as people hate to admit it, society and the world revolves around money. Whether someone wants to go to college, own a house, support a family, live luxurious etc all these things are dependent on wealth. So, knowing that the top one percent wealthiest people in the U.S owns more than the other ninety-nine percent combined is a little terrifying, and it’s partly due to the income inequality in the U.S. When there are people supporting their families on minimum wage and no one has taken action it’s time for a change. So, when it comes to the subject of wealth everyone will agree that is necessary to live. Where this consensus ends, however, is whether income inequality actually exists. Where as some would argue that income inequality

In the article “Confronting Inequality”, by Paul Krugman, he states that “vast income inequality inevitably brings vast social inequality in its train. And this social inequality isn’t just a matter of envy and insults.” (Krugman 563). Krugman is basically stating that the unfortunate is becoming poorer stressing day after day while the wealthy is becoming filthy rich having nothing to worry about. The widening gap is a serious issue because millions of families buy houses in nice neighborhoods they know they can’t afford due to themselves being so desperate to send their children to good schools. While it is reasonable to infer that this inequality gap has widened due to globalization or technological changes making the American population less competitive, we’re missing the real issue that with this gap being so wide as it currently is, there is not positive change being made. To add on, economic inequality can typically affect political choice making due to stances in life. In article “Inequalities of Income and Inequalities of Longevity”, by Eric Neumayer, he specifies that “poor people are less likely to vote and have little influence on political decisions, whereas the very rich can exercise a strong influence via lobbying and donations.” This highly creates political incentives that would benefit the rich rather than the poor in making society a convenience for the rich at the expense of the poor. For example, Neumayer list that low income families or individuals have multiple consequences with health due to the reason that they can’t afford the best hospitality a wealthy person would be able to afford. Therefore, America has huge amounts of inequality in opportunity and we may be convinced that any individual can be successful through determination but facts are saying otherwise. Wages are completely out