Preview

African American Income Inequality Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
853 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
African American Income Inequality Analysis
Government has continued to be an important aspect of the human society. This institution can exist in a local, State, or Federal level depending on the powers granted to it by the people. According to Benson, the government comprises of a small group of individuals who are mandated to discharge specific mandates as authorized by the citizenry (2). In other words, the government is representative and custodian of the powers of the people who created it. According to Amy, various “conservatives have been pushing for smaller government and have consistently called for reduced social spending, less regulation, and more tax cuts” (1). However, the fact that America is underperforming most other developed countries in areas such as income security …show more content…
One such challenge is the pervasive income inequality among minority groups such as the African-Americans. For a long time, the United States has established itself as the country where even the wildest dreams can be achieved with the right combination of hard work and motivation. For this reason, an outsider would expect to find a glittering economy where income inequalities and cases of poverty are unheard of. However, the reality on the ground is grim and unconvincing. Amy contends that the poverty rates in the United States have hovered around 11-13% for the last forty years and over 43 million Americans languish and endure in severe economic hardships. From the conservative’s perspective, government interference would only increase public spending while trying to rescue such individuals from economic hardships and increase the tax burden on other …show more content…
For example, the CEO-to-worker-pay ratio in the United States is 354-1, which makes income inequality, especially among minorities the defining challenge of contemporary times (Fitz n.p). For this reason, the government must expand its authority and programs to encompass ways of bridging the inequality that has become a typical problem in today’s American society. Conservatives such as the Republicans have been arguing for cuts that are geared towards improving the welfare of the poor (Amy 2). However, the government should increase funding for poverty programs, education, and job training to ensure that minority groups, as well as other Americans, are empowered

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    This book is an overview of the dire condition of the American economy that looks at the many efforts the federal, state, and even municipal levels of government have undertaken to bring public policy to bear on the problem of poverty. Other topics include employment policy, housing policy, education policy, welfare policy, and criminal justice policy. In addition, historical perspective is offered on why some policies have worked and why others haven’t. Peter Edelman is currently a professor at Georgetown University Law Center who is a lifelong antipoverty advocate with experience in both the Kennedy…

    • 325 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, much has been done to address poverty in the United States. Over time, there have been both changes and continuities. One continuity is that politicians have kept Medicare, Medicaid, and the Education subsidies from LBJ’s plan largely intact. One change is that LBJ’s plan focused on directly providing money to those in poverty, while later plans focused on getting people jobs.…

    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nickel and Dimed Analysis

    • 1927 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The American government has taken steps to show that it is more aware about the minority status of those living in poverty, and has taken some steps help people in that group. Beginning with the civil right’s act in 1964, discrimination based on race, religion, or sex was…

    • 1927 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”, with these two lines within the Declaration of Independence, America was born as a country of equality for all. However, America today, is a country ridden with disparity and inequality, resulting in glaring divisions amongst the American people. Today, the top 1% owns nearly half of America’s wealth, leaving the remaining 99% with only 50% of America’s wealth. Furthermore, according to the U.S Census, 27% of Black or African American households are living below poverty, while only 10% of White households are living below poverty today.…

    • 1573 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Historical events and powerful motivation leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and our last President Barrack Obama have catastrophically shifted the future for African Americans education systems, salaries and occupations. African Americans have been in constant struggle with Socio-Economic Status and have often measured as a combination of education, income, and occupation. It has commonly conceptualized as…

    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are gaps between incomes when comparing all racial groups. The group that I chose to study is African Americans. According to our text book, there is a significant gap between the incomes of the Black and White households (Schaefer). In 2009, the median income of Black households was $32,584. This is much lower than that of the White households holding at $54,461. Household incomes for African Americans have been gradually rising and can be seen in the median household income for the year 2013, $41,142, according to the tables provided in MySocLab Social Explorer Map: Income Inequality by Race (). There is also a low possibility of African Americans owning a home because of the lower income, but also due to discriminatory lending practices (Schaefer). Employment is another area that is held lower for African Americans. The unemployment rates have been high since the 1940s. The unemployment rate for Black males aged 16-24was 35 % during the height of the recession; this is very high because the national unemployment rate was this high during the Great depression. The social standings for this group, African American, is also much lower than Whites. There is a 39.2% rate for Black families with two parents and a 49.7% rate for those families that are only maintained by the mother (Schaefer, Figure 8.4). From a political standing, even though Barak Obama has entered and been in the White House, African Americans still have not received an equal share…

    • 872 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Poverty is not a monetary problem but a wide-ranging social issue that involves many factors including inadequate education, healthcare, and self-esteem. 12.5% of the population, more than 37.3 million people, suffer from poverty in the US and if something isn’t done soon, millions more will be pushed deeper into the poverty pool. The government has tried to create social welfare programs to end poverty and eradicate unemployment but these programs don’t address the main issues, only containing the problem. In recent years, the government has wanted to reduce the number of people on welfare and to cut back on funding for their social service programs. Although this is a difficult issue, after further examining the evidence, the government…

    • 1454 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Great Divergence In America

    • 2351 Words
    • 10 Pages

    With unreliable data and few resources to gain evidence of a faulty system; American politicians sometimes turn a blind eye or demean the importance of the issue. Obviously unemployment and economic deterioration are serious problems, but they are problems that would be further eased by addressing the current, historic, and growing imbalance in income inequality. The avoidance of such a current dilemma, such as the enormous gap of income, is an issue itself. For the problem to start resolving itself, we must bring the issue into the spotlight to be addressed by the officials who run our country. Income inequality, by contrast, is getting worse over time. Doesn’t it make more sense to focus attention on the problem that’s getting worse rather than all the problems—unemployment, the deficit, limited opportunity—that are not? But in turn, they could be resolved with addressing the prevalent income gap. (Noah 368)…

    • 2351 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Let us come back to the ‘All American Dream’, this dream was meant for you and me, and anybody in between, rich, poor, black, white, Christian, Muslim, whatever one identifies as should not be he barrier between them and achieving a better way of life. The root and the only place to start adjusting this social ladder is by working toward equal opportunities for all children across social classes so that they may move on up and bring better life to their own children and leave an everlasting impact on generations to come raising the value of education, hard work and…

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Beginning in the 1970s, wage rates began to decline and unemployment rates began to rapidly rise. This economic crisis that arose broadened the economic oppression that effected the African American population (Taylor, 2016, p. 53). These conditions remain unremitting in the current economic state of the United States. Undoubtedly, African Americans and other nonwhite minority groups, such as Hispanics, suffer the most from these circumstances, while whites are consistently more prosperous. Many people in the United States believe that persistent racial inequalities, in such cases as wages, income, residence, and healthcare, can be attributed to African American culture and individual failures, not racism (Brown, 1971, p. 6). However, this cannot explain the continuance of inequality once African American individuals acquire the education, skills, and experience necessary to prosper in the labor market. Whites still have an advantage over blacks and the attitudes of many white Americans remain unchanged because of the negative stereotypes that have accumulated. Moreover, the problem with the apparent advantage that whites…

    • 1534 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the class we learned of many issues that America had to face, and one in particular was the idea of equality among all people. Equality has been fought about with many different faces in our rich history, through many events in our history, America saw that there was a problem and they needed to change their ways.…

    • 1707 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Poverty In Black America

    • 1866 Words
    • 8 Pages

    African Americans have both privately and publically faced poverty. Their cries have long been ignored. Black poverty expands beyond their homes. It’s rooted deeply in their communities. It’s in the neighborhood stores, it’s in the community center. It’s in the schools that don’t educate, but merely instruct. It’s in the lack of effort and motivation to do better in life. And above all this, it’s in the hearts and minds of the children who neglect to find role models in their own homes.…

    • 1866 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Inequality In America

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When we hear the word “America” we often think of independence, opportunity, and success. Equal opportunity can be defined as every individual granted a fair chance and should be treated the same. The opportunity should overlook religion, race, sex, ethnicity, etc. For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been studying the nature of inequality and how it’s had a negative impact on society. From the outside looking in, it seems as if America is the land of equal opportunity, however, that is not accurate. The United States is not the land of equal opportunity. People of different races have to fight daily for fair opportunities. Inequality affects the ability of people who wants to improve the standards of their lives and contribution to society.…

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Income Inequality Essay

    • 758 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Gender, age, race, appearance, and physical limitations are among the numerous reasons of income inequality in the United States. All of these reasons have one thing in common: they are biases. Biases and discrimination are still a large part of today’s society and economy and impact many people, positively and negatively, depending on who it is and what situation they are…

    • 758 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The “American Dream” is an important cultural landmark for the country and the inhabitants of the United States of America. Many people preach that the US is the land of equal opportunity. Yet many of the population completely ignores the fact that not everyone has the same equal start as others do. They negate the suffering of those who are at a lesser position than them by using things such as the “Affirmative Action Act”, “Cash Assistance”, and the “Food Stamps” against the groups of people who use these— that is women, minorities, and working class families. That is why it is important to address these issues as a whole and side-to-side, because this will lessen the disadvantages that these groups of people face. That is not to say that…

    • 275 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays