Inequality In The 1980s: A Case Study

The income inequality in the United States is equal to developed countries, but is the highest in taxes and is the most unequal when it comes to income inequality. The order that the government is choosing to tax the citizen is hurting the economy. The way the poor are being taxed isn’t matching up with their paychecks and neither is the tax given to the rich. “U.S. minimum wage and limited job opportunities for people without a college degree. He also notes disparities in educational attainment, especially for postsecondary education, that may have contributed to income inequality” (Karageorge). This showed as a problem for people and their income as people have hard times looking for work and staying

In 1981, Regan convinced Congress to reduce the top tax rate from 70 percent to 50 percent and to index tax brackets to take inflation into account, five years later, the Tax Reform Act reduced the rate on the wealthiest Americans by a mere 28 percent (Foner 1051). Reagan also appointed conservative heads of regulatory agencies, who cut back on environmental protection and workplace safety rules about which business had complained for years (Foner 1051). Reagan’s economic program, was collectively known as “supply side economics” by proponents and “trickle-down economics” by critics, relied on high interest rates to curb inflation and lower tax rates, especially for businesses and high income Americans, to stimulate private investment. The policy assumed that cutting taxes would inspire Americans from all income levels to work harder, since they would keep more of the funds that they earned. Everyone would benefit from increased business profits, and because of a booming economy, the government receipts would increase in spite of the lower tax rates (Foner 1051). The opposite economic theory was the principle of progressivity. This was the idea that the wealthy should pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than any other citizens. This was also one of the ways that twentieth-century societies attempted to address the unequal distribution of

Although many citizens viewed capitalists as “Captains of Industry,” they can also, just as easily, be seen as “Robber Barons.” Even though railroads were beneficial to society, they were not without corruption, as shown by the Credit Mobilier scandal. This was a railroad company that paid itself huge sums of money for small railroad construction. In fact, it received twenty-three million dollars in profit. Moreover, the railroad industry could be seen as completely insincere and dishonest because of its monopoles. Another broader view of industry was that the poor was becoming more impoverished and the rich were gaining more fame. This is described in Henry George’s, Progress and Poverty, in 1879. “The wealthy class is becoming more wealthy; but the

In conclusion, income inequality has been existent since the 1920s to now. These inequalities derive from ones ethnic background and gender. Income inequality is an unfair occurrence and should no longer exist. It is time to make income equality apart of 21st

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.

The article “Confronting Inequality,” written by Paul Krugman, a professor at Princeton University, emphasizes that the middle class suffers from social inequality and economic inequality. Krugman suggests building a stronger safety net so the gap between the poor and rich can be limited to by raising of the taxes. Krugman uses this claim to highlight the fact that the middle class needs to be stronger and the only way to achieve that is to have a strong safety net. Krugman says the rich use loopholes in the tax system to cheat their way out of high taxes, and the poor pay a relatively high tax compared to what they should be paying. Krugman states if these ideas were incorporated into society, it would link the gap between

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.

The problem with the widened wealth gap is that the inequality may harm the quality. Meaning that those in the higher classes see it as you can use the money with no restrictions. However, economist believe that the “relationship between inequality and economic freedom, with the possibility that policies that are meant to reduce inequality will reduce economic freedom, which will then only make inequality worse.”

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.

The level of wealth inequality from the years 1967-1970 was higher than the level of income inequality from that same time. It would seem that a higher level of wealth inequality is a standard of the American economy since it was higher than the level of income inequality in all three eras. As for the specific amount of the yearly average wealth controlled by each fractile, using the information from Fig 6, we can see that the top one-hundredth percent fractile was in possession of 72.37% of the yearly average wealth from the years 1967-1970. The next nine-hundredth percent fractile controlled 16.06% of the yearly average wealth from the years 1967-1970. The four-tenth percent fractile after them had 5.95% of the yearly average wealth from

One interesting thing the author notes is the wealth inequality in the United States. Even though “1% of the population own nearly half the wealth in the country the American dream persists” (Golash-Boza, pg. 269). People still believe that if you work hard you will succeed. At first glance, it’s clear that white people have a higher percentage of home ownership than any other race. However in saying that, I would like to know what the population totals were by race for each state as well.

In the 1960’s citizens of the United States were considered to be living in poverty. It was a difficult and controversial time for American citizens due to the lack of food, jobs, and education. Apart from these factors there was both economic and racial inequality occurring at the same time. Throughout the presidency of John F. Kennedy and later Lyndon B. Johnson there was a plan to end poverty not through the aid of welfare, but through opportunities. Opportunities to succeed, advance, and reach prosperity, but even though this was the aim some of the problems discussed in the 1960’s are still being questioned today.

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

Australia has experienced a steady growth in economy during past twenty years. As a consequence of the rapid growth in economy, both labour and capital earnings rose and benefited to all households (Greenville, Pobke, & Rogers, 2013). Furthermore, among OECD countries, Australia achieved the second highest position in average income increase from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s (Fletcher & Guttmann, 2013; Greenville et al., 2013). Although the economy is shown a stable growth, income inequality is flouring across Australian states due to fundamental changes like privatisation, internationalisation of financial sector and so on (Johnson, Manning, & Hellwig, 1998).

During the early 1970’s, the United States of America had many structural inequalities integrated into its society. Many Americans lives were affected by the social standards of race, gender, and economic stance. Anne Sexton’s transformative poem “Cinderella” allows the speaker to use satire to show the structural inequalities of the economy, gender, and race in the United States in the 1970’s.