Wealth Inequality In America Analysis

We focus on how people are doing financially based on their income, wages and average salary. What we really need to focus on is wealth inequality. According to the study, “wealth refers to the value of your assets, such as money held in checking or savings accounts….minus the value of your liabilities or debts” (Study, Democracy Now!). Wealth is very important, and with financial hardships in the United States it is even more important for people to have wealth. Systematic racism is related to the median wealth for people. This form of racism basically means that our society is set up to give special privileges and advantages to a certain race. This means that the median wealth for people is different among people but more specifically

Wealth gaps in America is something that people do not know much about causing them to not realize how severe it is getting. In America, the top 10% of people (the very rich) are holding 50-80% of the wealth. This statistic is very scary and hard to grasp. Another scary fact is that the top 1% of the population holds around 35% of the United States net worth. People may ask what do these facts mean? They mean that the wealth gaps in America are getting further apart. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The wealth gaps in the social classes in the United States are getting worse because the haves and have nots are widening, the American dream is getting harder to do, the rich are taking more of the pie and, income inequality is on a record high.

1. Introduction 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.

Wealth inequality in America is nothing new. It has been growing more and more over the decades. The rich are becoming richer and the poor are becoming poorer. Imagine, people are having to get up at six o’clock every morning and drive back and forth across town to work at three jobs they hate. People have to work multiple jobs because most places only hire part time and pay minimum wage. Even after working sixteen hour days people are still barely able to pay bills and can only eat sparingly to get by. The wealthy are getting wealthier because the government is creating laws that allow them pocket more money. As the wealth inequality increases it puts more burden on the middle class. The wealth inequality is growing in America and it keeps

Second, in realizing the dream of equal opportunity and narrowing the wealth inequality gap, work ethic is the one which needs much attention. According to the panel of economists discussed on patterns of income inequality and mobility: -

Overall, I was surprised, but not shocked. I was more surprised of what people "think" the wealth distribution was when compared to the "reality" of wealth inequality. However, if inequality was relative to what the people seem to believe it to be. This would change society for perhaps the worst. From my understanding, there are only two perspectives on the wealth inequality topic. For example, there is an individual who claims that if the wealth inequality was the "ideal" or what 92% of what people "think" it is, that would encourage the middle class and more poor classes to rely even heavier upon the government. For instance, welfare checks, child support, and disability checks. Thus, causing the idea that the "American dream" is irrelevant to obtain a wealthy status. The second perspective is the opposite, the poor claim that the rich are only there due to their family connections and what not. Throughout the years it has become more common that a child from a wealthy family is to become a troubled human. Whereas, a child from the middle class or the poor works hard to pursue the "American dream" because they are driven to better their lives. For example, the wealthy could be taxed at a more extensive rate. But then

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

Upon reading Bell’s article I found that I agree with most of the author’s assertions. In my own experience as a child I too would categorize my family as being poor. Although my father was employed, his job was categorized as janitorial and as such paid minimum wage. As a child of the late and sixties and seventies I did realize that my family did not have some of the luxuries that other children enjoyed but I nor anyone in my family was ever treated as lazy, untrustworthy or lacking integrity.

This module addressed environmental issues that contribute to health, including overpopulation, consumerism, and wealth inequalities. People of all classes are affected by this issue in different ways; for example, the poor experience limited availability of healthy foods, and the rich consume a lot of resources. My favorite class activity was coming up with mental models related to the video “Wealth Inequality in America,” because it gave me insight on how the poor eat unhealthily based on circumstances that may be out of their control, not necessarily from personal choice as many people commonly assume.

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 1978 a typical 1% earned about $400,000 while the typical middle class worker got less than $50,000. Since then a lot has changed. In 2010 the average male worker got $33,000 and only 1% earned more than $1,100,000. Accordingly, the statistics say, “Today, the top 400 richest people have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans put together” (Inequality for All 1). What is also worth mentioning is that there

The article includes important issues which covered the higher tax rates in many countries. One issue that was brought up was the argument between the two economists, over the United States higher that even Democrats’ boldest plan to increase taxes on the wealthy would do little to reverse the rich’s gains. On the other hand, many of the Republican tax proposals on the table might increase income inequality. Also, the United States has had higher tax rates without stifling growth or encouraging the concentration of income in the hands of the very rich. Lastly, the United States is being accustomed to a level of inequality. Research done by Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty has shown that inequality among the middle class and the rich is nearly as acute as it was before the Great Depression.

For my final argumentative essay, I have chosen the topic wealth disparity. In my opinion, this topic needs to be research more in depth. The problem of wealth disparity is not just a national societal problem, but global societal problem. The distribution of wealth nationally has created social class system of the haves, and have nots, moreover, wealth disparity or wealth distribution; for example, there is wealth disparity between blacks and whites in America. In compelling surveys done by the United States Census Bureau, show that white men on a whole annual salary are higher in comparison to black

In short, the social structure such as terms of employment or tax systems, bring about the present American economic inequality. There is interaction between social structure and economic inequality. If one of them get worse, the another will also be aggravated. The government should carry out the policy to reform the whole American society paying attention to all consistent of America, not only improve superficial part of

As the great divide of wealth inequality continues to increase, capitalism surely can no longer be sustainable in and of itself, as money is extremely concentrated to a select few. With this paradigm the lower classes can’t and fail the liberty of being able to buy the products or services being produced. In the Marxist view, capitalism will eventually set the stage for a revolution since it promotes poverty, which is what Nick Hanauer (a self described 1%), in “Beware, Fellow Plutocrats, The Pitchforks Are Coming,” attempted to reiterate to his fellow comrades.