In the article "Confronting Inequality" Paul Krugman is explaining the inequality in the United States, while demonstrating the many statistics. He is mentions American huge gap between the elites and lower and income classes. Economic inequality brings the social inequality, where as a result, we would have a society of unequal opportunities. In 1997 Irving Kristol published an article in The Wall Street Journal called ‘Income Inequality Without Class Conflict.’ Kristol argued that we shouldn't worry about income inequality, because whatever the numbers may say, class distinctions are, in reality, all but gone.…
McClelland elaborates about the Plethora of blue collar jobs that were available in the 1970’s. A perfect example of shared prosperity is the story McClelland’s history teacher shared with him. His student dropped out of school and began working as an electrician’s assistant and showed up a year later to show off his brand new car to his teacher. During that time period, you didn’t have to be cultured or educated to live comfortably as a middle class citizen. McClelland believes that the prosperity ended due to the lack of government oversight. In order to revive the middle class earners, the government would have to raise minimum wages, higher taxes on passive wealth, and provide benefits for workers who don’t get any benefits from the company…
Paul Krugman’s book the Conscience of a Liberal is meant to shape conversation about income inequality and promote liberal ideas the way the Conscience of a Conservative promoted movement conservatism and policies that created income inequality. In the book Krugman explains how the policies of the New Deal created a long period of economic growth, the policies that led to income inequality rising again, and the levels of income inequality that exists now. He explains the rise of movement conservatism, and how movement conservative politicians exploited racial and social divisions and anxiety to advance their otherwise unpopular economic agenda. He explains abundance of political unity during the times with little inequality and the partisanship…
Reich graduated from Yale Law School and served in the Clinton administration. Although he does not have a degree in economics, he has written several books on the subject, including "The Work of Nations". Reich is considered an authority in "the relationship of governmental policy to the economic health of the nation".…
In his essay “RIP, the Middle Class: 1946-2013,” Edward McClelland states that just out of high school students could get jobs in factories earning a higher wage than in careers requiring a degree. McClelland argues that when the recession hit, America’s middle class significantly declined, lowering income for a majority of people and making the rich wealthier. He asserts that getting even a factory job without a college degree is next to impossible. McClelland blames the decline of the middle class chiefly on the lack of federal management over America’s financial system. McClelland reminds us that the economy can’t withstand without government involvement and oversight.…
According to Robert Reich (2013), who served under the the administrations of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, as well as served under Bill Clinton as the Secretary of Labor stated that contrary to popular belief, globalization and technology have not really reduced the number of jobs to Americans, these transformations reduced their pay. In the movie, Inequality For All, Reich (2013) conveyed that it is not just the dormant wages, but also rising cost of living, such as paying for rent or houses, increasing cost of healthcare, as well as childcare, and higher education. Which according to Reich (2013), has turned to the vicious cycle, of stagnant wages, which means workers buy less, then companies downsize, tax revenues decrease, then Government…
The article “Federalism and American Inequality” explores the issue of American economic inequality in a new way. Although this article did not present a perfect cure for inequality, that was never its goal. Simply it was an attempt to increase our understanding of inequality in our nation, and encourage both Federal, State, and Local Governments, along with citizens to use whatever influence they might have to fight…
Inequality for all discusses the economy and how the income gap between the rich, poor, and middle class is widening. The former labor secretary Robert Reich is the spokesperson throughout the movie. The movie takes place in the wake of the 2007-2008 financial crisis when income inequality started to stand out.Inequality for all brings awareness to how large the widening income gap is in the United States between the top 1% and the rest of the society. Inequality for all share how the economy has increased but most of that profit has gone to the top 1%. These top 1% include people such as CEO’s and venture capitalists who have gained control over the society and rely on the low and middle class to keep the economy going. A large part…
Throughout the Article, Robert Reich talks about the growing gap between the upper half of society and the lower half of society. The main narrator of this article is the author, Robert Reich who is telling a story about America’s social classes. Reich uses a metaphor to explain how the economy is going down and up for the rich and the poor. He says that it’s a boat we’re all in, “one sinking rapidly one sinking more slowly and the third rising steadily” (1). Reich is referring to the three social classes, the lower class, the middle class, and the upper class. The lower class keeps getting poorer because of job loss, due to more automation and competition from other countries…
America is known as the land of the free, home of the brave and is deemed as one of the most prosperous countries with a booming economy and mass production of goods. But just as it took decades for America to build up this reputation, there were devastating periods of intense trial and error. During the Great Depression, 40% of Americans were living in poverty due to an unregulated economy. The New Deal soon followed after society had reached its apotheosis of poverty and served as a relief to jump-start the economy. The United States soon entered World War II due to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and went into the Cold War that divided the “free” and “first” world.…
Have you ever noticed the crisis raging within the middle class? Lou Dobbs has surely noticed and in War on the Middle Class, Dobbs discusses the issues surrounding the middle class and how they can be solved. In this book, Dobbs discusses the problems of the elitists within the middle class, the flaws in healthcare, and the faults in the United State’s education system.…
Over the past generation inequality has become a big issue in our society. Whether you are rich or poor, born here or immigrant, high class or middle class, inequality will find its own way to you some how. Here we should stop and ask ourselves why should we care about high and rising inequality? The answer to this question is in these three articles, “Bring on More Immigrant Entrepreneurs “by Shayan Zadeh, “Confronting Inequality” by Paul Krugman, and RIP, Middle Class: 1946-2013” by Edward McClelland. These three articles have discussed the inequality issue from three different point of views in three different and unique ways.…
"Inequality for All" is very informative and persuasive documentary movie, produced by Robert Kornbluth and featuring Robert Reich, a professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley who was also a political appointee who served as the Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. The movie explains how extreme inequality in income and wealth is a major problem for our society, regardless of which political side you find yourself on. Using video outtakes from the lecture series he currently presents at Berkeley and linking those with clips from movies and other videos, this documentary shows how income inequality has changed over decades in the United States. The movie offers a clear-eyed expose of a system that truly is stacked in favor of those who already have most of the money in America.…
Prior to this activity, I was skeptical that I would not learn anything beneficial or enlightening. After a little debate, I decided to move forward in watching the documentary Poor America. Although this was a short documentary, I felt that every second was impactful. This documentary was the perfect introduction to allow myself to develop within this series of multicultural activities. I felt engaged during the documentary because it showed several different people going through something similar that I have thankfully not had to experience in my life. Prior to this documentary, I do not believe I was aware of true poverty. A lot of the things that I had growing up I did not realize they were such a privilege. Although small, this experience as help me develop a better understanding.…
In a study of a variety of developed countries, the United States had the second highest level of income inequality in the world, right behind Chile. Income inequality has always been a problem in the world, but especially in the United States. There is frequent debate on whether a person is getting a high enough salary or not. If not, the person that is not getting the sufficient funds often resorts back to the argument of their sex, race, or religion. This leads to worrisome debate throughout the country which causes a number of people to point their finger back towards their government. I stand with many other Americans and say that income inequality does threaten democracy in the United States, as well as the world.…