People around the nation have been changing their view on what type of economy America should have. Bernie Sanders a Democratic nominee wants to replace capitalism with a more socialistic economy and hopes to remove income inequality. Americans are unsure on where they should stand on the issue of America’s economy and the wealth gap, presenting an ideal opportunity for the article to get recognition and convince readers that the wealth gap is beneficial to America.
The opportunity for access to education, study hard, find jobs, and work hard, known as the American Dream, has been greatly impacted by income inequality (Graff, Birkenstein, and Durst 539).
The distribution of incomes and wealth in the 1920s and now are diverse but similar in several ways (Ucsc.edu). A person’s wealth is determined by what they own, not including any debts. A person’s income is how much money one may make on a job or money someone obtain. Income inequality is real and has affected people for many years, and it is still occurring currently.
Income inequality is an ongoing issue in the world and race plays a major factor with this discrimination. The racial wage gap between black and white women has grown substantially since the 1980s (Pettit and Ewert 2009). Racial and ethnic wage gaps are significantly larger for men than for women. Based on the 1981 CPS date, black-white earnings are 0.67 for men vs. 0.97 for women, while Hispanic-white earnings are 0.72 for men and 0.90 for women (Bayard, Hellerstein, Neumark, and Troske 1999). I am going to explain two factors that contribute to income inequality, race and ethnicity, and gender.
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.
These benefits would be only be available to the lower and middle class, leaving the rich without benefits, thus creating income equality. This is not the only time the rich will not receive benefits, but the poor will as Krugman says an increased minimum wage will raise the social status of the poor. Raising of the minimum wage, at the time when the article was written, would allow the lower classes to bring in an increased income annually. The rich are then forced to pay their workers more, which means less money for the wealthy annually. This means the poor would make more money, the middle class would stay the same, and the rich would make less annually, therefore bringing income equality. Krugman suggests the United States should change to more socialistic society as he says unions are needed in the United States. Bringing more unions in the United States would create equal wage distribution and better job stability. Krugman is recommending a progressive policy similar to FDR’s New Deal package that was introduced before WWII. Krugman believes a policy like this “could reduce extreme inequalities in pay.” (602) A minimum wage increase would help the
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.
However, the best possible solution in this case-scenario, is to expand the minimum wages and create new jobs for unemployed people. If this measure was put through, millions of people with low wages would be lifted out of poverty. Actually, “raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, would lift more than 4 million people out of poverty” (AmericanProgress). As well as creating new jobs, this would have played a major role in the fight against poverty.
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.
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.
Are you the "99 percent" or are you the "1 percent" ? In the United States, nationals are set in social classes based upon their salary. This motto focuses on the abundance of the wealthiest and the rest. As indicated by the article "We are the 99 percent" by Brian Shelter, protestors are battling for more equivalent dispersion of wage. They are utilizing online networking like Twitter, Skype, Tumblr, Facebook and more to Arrange occasions and advance their reason.
To improve the situation, Obama wants to apply a revalorization of the minimum income and benefit from taxes on the rich. Today the average income of the 10 per cent of the richest is sixteen times greater than the 10 per cent of the poorest.
Throughout the history of the United States, there were always problems that seemed to be unsolvable at that point, but America fought to overcome those dilemmas and as we can see today its independent, rules by the highest and the most powerful source of law- Constitution, there is no slavery, segregation, and women gained their rights. There is no country that is ideal, each country has its flaws and America is not exception, but is willing to act on it and modify itself. One of the biggest problems that citizens are faced with is income inequality that highly increased over years. It is putting the same energy and time but receiving different amount of money for the same type of job, this unfairness teaches peoples how to survive by using
However it does have so great major parts. To start off, America’s economic equality gap is huge, which is constantly a disturbing factor. On misconception often made about economic inequality is that “the poor are poor because the rich are rich”; this would be a false statement. The rich often own profitable business creating big enterprises. On the other hand, the poor have to go thorough circumstance, which makes their life at the economical stage it is now. Even if some low-income workers may be able to benefit from a higher minimum wage, most of the very poor won’t be able to. When they are not in the labor force; they either can 't work because they are too young, old, disabled or unskilled or won 't work; which would create more challenges through their
We live in a world where social class impacts both our economy and social life. Some people believe having unequal incomes lead to inequality, thus hurting the economy growth. While others claim that having different incomes pushes the ones making a low one to be better off, eventually making a high revenue, and wakens the rich to maintain their status and income. Which means benefiting the economic growth.