Examples Of Economic Inequality

Inequality appears all over in today’s society and a majority of people see it as a major problem that is inevitable. Inequality comes in many different forms from racial inequality, gender inequality, but this paper will focus on economic inequality. Economic inequality becomes a problem for our society both socially and economically. Based on the film I found it to create a social problem with the middle class’ declining income, and I found that it creates an economic problem when wages don't meet the daily cost of living. Inequality causes social problem because the middle class suffers from a declining income and the fact that the rich abuse their wealth. In the film it discussed that the nation tried to cope with the declining income
of the middle in three different ways. One way they tried bringing women into a paid workforce. This happened when the men weren't able to bring in a substantial amount of money for the family to live off of. The second way was for both men and women to work longer hours. They now work around 300 hours a year more that is almost six extra hours a week. The third way that they tried included using their house a collateral and borrowing deeper and deeper into debt. All three of these took the typical American family and turned it upside down cause people to continuously work to try to make up for the lost income. Going back to the rich they abuse their wealth causing the tax system to tilt in their favor causing a greater toll on the middle class. Robert Reich, the speaker from the video, focused on the point that the rich know their getting richer and don't use their wealth the way the middle class would use the money. Inequality also causes a problem economically when wages aren’t enough to cover the cost of daily living. When the cost of living began to increase more people tried to get a job in the workforce, but there wasn't enough to support all the workers so the wages were able to rise. Unlike the wages the cost of living continues to increase at a staggering rate. There was a quote in the movie that states, “saving is good, but too much spending hurts the economy. Spending is what the economy needs.” This statement could not be more true and because the people have no money to spend, due to the high cost of living, they have no extra money to spend and in return the economy suffers. On the opposite side of the middle class, spending what they can, but continuing to struggle, the rich stand. As for the rich they have all this surplus money lying around to spend except they continue to spend too little and in return the economy continues to struggle. Both of these problems go hand in hand, one affects the other and vise versa. The income gap is formed by the growth of wages not being competitive with the cost of living. Despite the nation’s effort to solve the problem is caused by an unbeatable threat society. Economic inequality is created by today’s society falling short of the necessary amount of money for the cost of daily living. All of these problems cause a greater inequality between the rich and the poor and unless something is done and fast it won’t be stopping anytime soon.