Social Inequality: The Factors And Impacts Of Poverty

Andrew Carnegie once raised the question of how to distribute wealth properly. He raised the argument on whether or not it was fair for so few to have so much and keep it away from the people who have so little. He asked this question when he realized that there are few people that are born into wealth and do nothing to earn it while there are people who live in poverty who work everyday just to keep their families alive. Carnegie explained how there were two types of wealth, there is comfort wealth and surplus wealth. Surplus wealth was an extreme unnecessary wealth that was never used to provide for family but instead for luxury items.Comfort wealth was explained as an amount of wealth that allowed them to live comfortably without the luxury

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.”

In his speech “Every Man a king” senator Huey Long suggested to reconstruct the wealth in America. He describes the current economic crisis as devastating because 10 people own about 85% of America’s wealth when the rest of the population does not have anything. Some even starve to death. The purpose of his speech is to create the effect of urgency. He wanted to limit the wealth one’s can have. So, no one would be too rich nor too poor. People should not be allowed to own more than $600 million. He suggested to limit the average income of $15,000 to every family. He also wanted to restructure the way taxes were being paid. His conception was the more money you get more your federal tax you pay. And the tax’s money should help fund: education,

Of Mice and Men is a novel known across the globe, its delicate tone and emphasis on humanity and the struggles of the world locks the readers in. What dazzles readers most about this folk classic is how it is expressed in a way that all can understand, but few comprehend the deep and dark turn of events that lie between the lines of the book at first glance. The book isn’t referenced so often for its events in the past, but more for how it is related to the present as well as the future. The main issue discussed in this masterpiece is inequality, this subject applies to not only those of the past, but to everyone in every circumstance across the world today. Although it’s the 21st century, this issue is still present in everyday life. Wealth, race, gender, and mental illness has torn society apart and lead to inequality. These major reasons for inequality has affected everyone in its path leading to major consequences as well as issues and problems. In China, a new found wealth has left the social classes more divided and issues are beginning to rise. Meanwhile in the U.S., wealth is destroying students and unequal views toward specific types of people are weakening the patriotic bond.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s early American masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, gives readers a glimpse of life in the Roaring Twenties. In a time period filled with new inventions and a booming economy, rising through the ranks of social hierarchy seems deceivingly simple. Yet, improving one’s social stature in the communities of East Egg and West Egg is, in fact, a nearly impossible task. Unfortunately, rising in social standing in today’s society has proven just as difficult. As the nation’s wealth gap grows larger, more and more individuals are driven into poverty. Children from these less fortunate families struggle in school; many are lucky to even graduate from high school. Without college degrees, these children face limited

Draining the rich of their money will not help those who are poverty stricken. It could cause the opposite of the intended effect (more equal income) and cause a greater amount of poverty and less chances to earn a living. A wealthy person is generally thought of making more than $300,000 a year and usually has stock, real estate, or both. In developed countries, such as the United States, “income inequality has increased since the 1980s” (Woo 5). A large amount of people argue that a system such as socialism could fix that inequality. Socialism is a political and economic theory that centralizes the government and distributes wealth and jobs in order to form a social society (Evangelopoulos). Many economists and politicians have debated the

Homelessness is a significant complex societal problem. Many people think homelessness is an individual problem, but I think society has a large factor on why people become homeless. Individuals who are homeless are not lazy like most of society thinks. These people are struggling with societal problems such as living costs and mostly cannot support themselves financially. In my eyes, Homelessness is a factor of societal forces such as high cost of housing and living and also society having failed systems to support people who are stuck in these sorts of situations. Because of these issues, society should develop better strategies to help these people in need to eliminate the growing poverty level through the world. These strategies could include

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.

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.

Again the responsibility shifts to the government, if a government is economically instable then it is hard for it to make and implement policies which will benefit the people. By far the biggest factor responsible for poverty after government’s policy is the problem of unemployment. Unemployment further worsens the living style of the people and they become economically deprived due to which they are unable to cope with the advancing living standards. Access to quality education also causes poverty because without education any person in the world cannot gain access to a good job and that a person has to work on low

The United States is one of the most developed and wealthiest nations on the planet. However, the nation today has more income and wealth inequality as compared to any other key developed nation. In addition, there is a very large gap that exists between extremely rich and the rest of the people. Most of this income and wealth is controlled by a shocking small percentage of individuals. This accrues to only 1 percent of the nation’s total population. Today, there are about 400 billionaires and millionaires who earn billions of US dollars every year through entrepreneurship and heavy international investments (Gornick & Jäntti, 2014). In spite of great technological advancements in the country, as well as productivity, many Americans work for longer hours and get low wages in return. For example, the actual average income for American male employees is about $783 less as compared to what it was 42 years ago; at the same time as the actual average income for female employees is well over $1,300 less as compared to what it in the year 2007 (Gornick & Jäntti, 2014).

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.

‘Poverty’- a simple word with unlimited connotations. Poverty is a universal issue that has been plaguing our Earth for centuries; thus it is essential that the immensity of the situation is acknowledged by everyone. If looked up, you’ll find the exact definition of poverty being: ’general scarcity, dearth, or the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. [1] Poverty is a multifaceted concept, which includes social, economic, and political elements. [2] Poverty may be defined as either absolute or relative.’ Never the less, it’s ironic how in the 21st century we prize ourself for being progressive when almost half of us - over 3 billion people - can’t even conjure up what life is like beyond ‘the poverty trap’ they are in. We prize ourselves, when one out of every two children is poor. Can you imagine growing up as one of the 640 million kids whom have no adequate shelter, let alone a place to call home? Or the 400 million to whom safe drinking water is simply a figment of their imagination? Or maybe the 270 million who have no means of getting health care? According to United Nation statistics, until this moment, there are 836 million people whom live in extreme poverty meaning they don’t have the rights they are entitled to in the first point of Article 25 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which clearly states that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his

The world today is full of problems. It’s difficult work for people all over the world to solve these concerns. Why? Because each of these problems are related to one another. One of the problems playing a great role in this confusing web is poverty. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of poverty is “the state of being extremely poor”. Now many people might think, “So what? Why should I care?”. Well one thing is for sure; we, people, should care. Everything going on in the world has cause and effects. Not only to a couple of individuals or community, but to everyone. And looking at poverty, it should be eliminated, or at least decreased because of the effects it has towards our society, health,

Poverty still occurs across the modern world which we live in nowadays. While the majority of people would relate the word poverty with less developed countries the truth is that poverty is to be found everywhere you look. Yet the term, poverty, is brought up to discussion. Because would you consider yourself poor even though you didn’t know the better scenario existed? And isn’t it sometimes enough just to have a bed to sleep in, food to eat and people around who love you? Some might say that whether or not you consider yourself poor are simply up to your mindset. Because sometimes just being grateful for what you have and not trying to search for the unattainable are more than enough. Having all the riches in the world is not necessarily the key to happiness and