When people hear the word inequality they think of inequality as a circumstance just involving race, things like being unequal with another person cause of your skin color or cause of your traditions. However, inequality covers many other broad factors one factor other than race being income inequality. In “Inequality Has Been Going on Forever…but That Doesn’t Mean It’s Inevitable.” (The New York Times, 02.05.14), David Leonhardt points out that Income inequality has come to be extremely high, the middle class is shrinking while the rich become richer. This attitude is encouraged by various factors: society, taxation, and how much time has passed. The inequality is said to last for decades.
Inequality has been a major problem all over the world. Not just with race or gender, but now ones' income puts them aside from others. and they are catorgarized. Gary S. Becker, a Noble laurete in economics, and Kevin M. Murphy, a professor at the University of Chicago and a recipient of a 2005 MacCrthur "genius" fellowship, believe that a higher education equals higher income. Paul Krugmam, a teacher of economics at Princeton and the city University of New York, uses people who have had an impact on America. They all make decent points towards income inequality, and inequality as a whole. Becker and Murphy believe that if a higher education will give you a higher income, although education after high school is expensive, the returns are worth it. Even though statistics prove that Becker and Murphy's theory is correct, Krugman believes that the living standards are important and shouldne be jepordized, because of an education.
Income inequality, a topic that under normal circumstances is strongly opposed. Many Americans have believe that the wealth gap should be reduced because it hurts our economy. George F. Will proposes that income inequality is actually beneficial to our society and wrote “How Income Inequality Benefits Everybody”, Published in 2015 on The Washington Post. Wills primary claim in the article is to convince readers that income inequality is not necessarily a bad thing. He claims that because America’s capitalistic system permits for enormous wealth gaps it diminishes the gaps between lifestyles. He uses information from initial prices of luxury goods and how they have been reduced by a significant amount over the years. Will begins to establish
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 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 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 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
In 2007, wages and salaries, which constitute income in the country, went down from 70% all the way to 60% (Gornick & Jäntti, 2014). During this time, the income that is generated by the top 1 percent of American households has tripled from 6 percent all the way to 19 percent. This ever growing disparity is being aggravated by failures in policies and in particular, the inequality is being blamed on years of progressive tax decrease, regulatory, transfer along with failures in full-employment laws in recent
For many decades the economic growth of American has shifted to different standards. Each generation of growing up in America can and will face different economic situations than the generation before them. It is a part of circular flow of economics. One factor that is brought up, especially in recent years is income inequality. During a debate hosted by intelligence squared, two sides argued the notion the rich in America are taxed too much. Beginning with the side for the notion that the rich are taxed enough was Robert Glenn who took a straightforward approach to the argument. He stated that historically when people begin to tax something you end up producing less or getting less out of it. He suggested that it be better for the rich to
Income inequality is a global issue that need to be addressed and is a threat to the individuals or household with low income. In today’s world the rich are becoming rich while the poor are deteriorating and going below the poverty line. To me, imposing high income taxes would not bring an immediate solution only that, it accelerates the burden. Because the higher the tax rate, the higher the rate of poverty subjected to the low income individuals. Due to that, the government should provide quality education to the citizens so that they become self-reliant in the future and experience high living standards. Moreover, the government should create more job opportunities so that all citizens should have weekly paychecks thus boost household income.