Inequality In America
In America today you often hear about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. In the Youtube video “Watch Inequality in America,” from the politizane channel, the video states that your everyday CEO makes 380 times more than their average worker. If you do the math, then the average employee would have to work over a month to make what the CEO makes in only one hour (2012). So, besides pay inequality what else is affecting the nation’s poverty? While it is true that a large reason for the staggering amount of poverty in America comes from pay inequality, it also comes from the lack of education in our youth. According to Lyndsey Layton, 2013 was the first time in about 50 years that a majority of U.S. public school students came
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According to the 2014 U.S. Census Bureau, in a family of five (with 3 children under 18 years of age), that make less than $28,252 a year would be considered below the “poverty line.” The Census Bureau also states that children under the age of 18 living in poverty amounted to 21.1 percent (DeNavas-Walt, 2014). Therefore, 1 in 5 children in public schools is impoverished. However, it hasn’t always been this way, though. Dario Berrebi mentions that in the 1950s to 1970 the economy in America was booming and poverty was dwindling but, by the 80s and 90s poverty was on the rise again and became concentrated in Urban areas. “Urban poverty tripled in ten years… At the same time, the population also started to change with the arrival of more and more immigrants from Latin America… At the turn of the 21st Century, over 1 in 10 Americans were poor” (Berrebi 2012). History has shown it is becoming increasingly difficult for a child in poverty to attend institutions of higher education. Donna Beagle reports that in 1970 there was only a 16% chance a child from a lower-income household would attain a bachelor’s degree compared to someone in the upper class. By 1996, that number has continued to drop to 10% (2003, p. 2). In recent years, the South has faced a poverty problem. Childfund.org states that 71% of students in Mississippi came from low-income families, 61% from Oklahoma and 50% from Texas (N.d.). As we learn about the history of poverty we can break it down
According to the 2014 U.S. Census Bureau, in a family of five (with 3 children under 18 years of age), that make less than $28,252 a year would be considered below the “poverty line.” The Census Bureau also states that children under the age of 18 living in poverty amounted to 21.1 percent (DeNavas-Walt, 2014). Therefore, 1 in 5 children in public schools is impoverished. However, it hasn’t always been this way, though. Dario Berrebi mentions that in the 1950s to 1970 the economy in America was booming and poverty was dwindling but, by the 80s and 90s poverty was on the rise again and became concentrated in Urban areas. “Urban poverty tripled in ten years… At the same time, the population also started to change with the arrival of more and more immigrants from Latin America… At the turn of the 21st Century, over 1 in 10 Americans were poor” (Berrebi 2012). History has shown it is becoming increasingly difficult for a child in poverty to attend institutions of higher education. Donna Beagle reports that in 1970 there was only a 16% chance a child from a lower-income household would attain a bachelor’s degree compared to someone in the upper class. By 1996, that number has continued to drop to 10% (2003, p. 2). In recent years, the South has faced a poverty problem. Childfund.org states that 71% of students in Mississippi came from low-income families, 61% from Oklahoma and 50% from Texas (N.d.). As we learn about the history of poverty we can break it down