Great Divergence In America

Shayna Hofmann
Professor Samuel White
English 1A
12 February 2014 Headed in the Opposite Direction
During the past thirty-three years the gap between the rich, middle-class, and impoverished has become much more prominent. At the early signs of this great economic divergence, people mistook it for a short slip-up in our nations economy, but now the divergence has become a reality of life itself. There were signs that the indifference was beginning to disappear in 2011 when The Occupy Wall Street movement occurred, but its hard to know if these will have any lasting effect in our nations future. We tend to think of America growing more equal in society not less, and it has in ways such as gender equality, equality amongst races, marriage
In his book The Great Divergence: America 's Growing Inequality Crisis and what we can do about it, Noah demonstrates the reality of our American government today, and how it is controlled by the ‘stinking rich’. Noah gives a fair and comprehensive summary of how inequality has widened so markedly over the last three to four decades, what it means for American society and what the country can -and should- do about it. As he makes clear, what has mostly grown is the gap between those at the top and those in the middle. As a result, his article reverberate more with the recent focus on “the 1 percent” than with more traditional concerns about poverty. Noah gives clear examples of how the income gap is hurting our economy as a whole while delivering an educated opinion on why Americans should wake up and realize what is happening to our system, through research and findings Noah supports his intriguing case with powerful insight to our continuing issue of inequality in
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) On the other hand, some say that income inequality is inevitable and has as many pros as it does cons. Arguments such as how inequality is necessary to encourage entrepreneurs and contractors to take risks and set up new businesses, because without the prospect of substantial rewards, there would be little incentive to take risks and invest in new business opportunities. More arguments on