After watching the video, "Wealth Inequality in America", published by Politizane, I was surprised when finding out that only the top one percent of America has 40 percent of all the nation's wealth. It was also surprising to discover that the top one percent owns half the country's stocks, bonds, and mutual bonds, while the bottom 50 percent of Americans own only half a percent of these investments. One of the notions I had that was challenged by the video was the amount of money the wealthy actually have compared to the rest of the classes. I was aware that wealth mostly distributed to the wealthy class, but I never imagined that the division between the wealthy class and the rest of the classes would be so huge. Its incredible that the CEO's…
Equality is defined as the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities. It is written in the Constitution that all men are created equal, but for 100s of years, several types of citizens have been treated anything but that. We go back to the 1960s. African Americans are killed, beaten, and oppressed due to the color of their skin. Several whites, although caring about Civil Rights, stand by and watch, to afraid to say or do anything to get them hurt. During the time of the March on Washington, white and black activists both played important parts in the Civil Rights Movement.…
My values and beliefs for this topic came from living here the United States. Growing up here for almost nine years have made me realize that they are some inequality issues that are still a problem and that are being ignore by the lawmaker for example gay marriage not all fifty states are allowing gay marriage to be legalized once and for all. I decided to take a class during my senior year of high school to learn more about social inequality. I decided to take American studies and Ethnic and minorities class. In my ethnic and minorities class I learned a lot about inequalities issues and what exactly was going on in the United States. In my American studies we discussed inequality events that occurred In American a long time ago. I learned about gay marriage, disability rights, women rights, African American rights the list goes on. Slowly I started to realize how unfair the system was and has been. Ever since I Took those two classes my perspective in inequality issues has grown. The lawmakers are not pushing the system to change. The lawmakers are not doing anything to help fight…
Over the last decade, income inequality has become one of the most important issues in the U.S. and a subject of a lot of debate. There is a prevalent idea in the society that the wealth inequality in United States is currently at the highest level in the history after steadily raising for a number of decades. The financial crisis is said to have contributed to this significant gap between the top 1% and everybody else. People view it as an inherently negative thing, and fight hard to promote the equality and income redistribution. This paper examines the causes of inequality; the relationship between wealth inequality and economic growth and the hypothesis on how policy measures can be designed to mitigage the income disparity both in U.S. and in the rest of the world. The researh is based on the theory that inequality is an essential aspect of an efficient free market economy that adversely affects economic growth when in excess.…
Everyone in America has the opportunity to succeed financially, however, this opportunity is not equal for everyone. One's social class, income, and education all factor into their opportunity to succeed. If you are on the lower end of the spectrum it may not just require a strong work ethic to succeed you may also need some sort of luck or talent in order to do so. Social class can help people get a head start to reaching financial success but it can also hold people back. It may affect the quality of education one receives which in turn may result in higher/lower income. Everyone has different obstacles to face in life but these obstacles are not impossible to overcome. Financial success would mean you are able to keep yourself and those dependent on you alive and secure, you can pay the bills, and have some degree of upward mobility. All Americans have…
Krugman suggests that we take the United States economy for granted, he thinks that extreme inequality is an “inevitable byproduct of robust economic growth in a globalized age are not inevitable at all”. Political choices not economic laws, have helped form the United States to become a world superpower and a nation of the very rich, the very poor and an increasingly fragile middle class. His approach to how society should handle these social and economic probelms is for the people to take back the goverment and make society equal again. He supports the idea of a “new, new deal” but thinks that the government is run by a movement that is dedicated to policies that are against most Americans' interests, and must try to compensate for that…
In the United States, the top ten percent of all households own seventy-six percent of all the wealth in the country (1). Income inequality is frequently highlighted, but why is wealth inequality rarely brought to our attention? The political system has failed to deal with the problem, and the gap will only continue to grow in the future. How can we call this the land of opportunity when the bottom forty percent will most likely stay the bottom forty percent for their entire lives (1)? That is why I offer a modest proposal to overthrow the current system and establish a Utopian society built from the rubble. This Utopia, which I shall refer to as the United Socialist States of America (USSA), is going to be built around the premise of economic equity through the equal distribution of resources and knowledge. This would create a society without greed because money is the ultimate…
“Wealth inequality can be described as the unequal distribution of assets within a population. The United States exhibits wider disparities of wealth between rich and poor than any other major developed nation,” (www.inequality.org) There are two factors that I believe contribute to the wealth gap are income and race inequalities. As the gaps widen within those two factors, the wealth gap in the United States continues to grow exponentially.…
The world always been an unequal place. Today, people are treated for not who they are, but for their religious background, race, gender and financial status. Inequality in the United States of America is present in a highest level. America is a country that reunites all seven continents in itself, moreover, it is possible to find people from various backgrounds here. However, not all of these people are treated equally. It is disappointing to see that how everyone is classified in this country. Indeed, if there is a crime the suspect must be a black male, if there is a terroristic attack or threat then the suspect is most likely to be a Muslim, if there is a robbery the suspect will be an illegal immigrant from Mexico. The root of this problem comes from the past century where people were judged by the color of their skin and this problem…
The Constitution of the United States declares everyone to be equal, but this is not a reality. Throughout history and continuing into the present day, there is disorder and conflict in the lives of working people in society. Inequality creates a conflict of power among social classes due to differing treatment based on race and gender as well as the effects of the economy on working society, and the role of social status in America. The ever present division between races and genders has caused a rise of discriminatory opportunity.…
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.…
Inequality is the unequal distribution of valued goods and opportunities in a society. Over the past two decades, there has been an increase in economic inequality in the United States. Four major reasons for this increase is the changing relationship between technological expansion and education, deindustrialization and restructuring, government policies, and decline of unions. Technology in the United States has advanced immensely since the 1970s. This has led to peoples jobs being replaced by technology, for example bank tellers have been replaced by ATMs, and a higher level of education is now needed to use the technology for jobs.…
Income inequality in America has become a big issue, one that many of us hear every day; whether on the news or from our parents. But normally, we don’t hear the actual phrase used. We hear things like “the top two percent,” or, the “rich vs. the poor.” So, what is income inequality? Income inequality is defined as the difference between individuals or populations in the distribution of their assets, wealth, or income.…
Dear president Curtis Jackson, right now the U.S. has become to unequal which will cause many problems in the future. There are many studies about the inequality that exist among citizens which will lead to the collapse of our civilization. Through sociology these inequalities are about power and wealth between social classes which are developed through social stratification. Also, since we are a post-industrial society people are also separated by race in some ways especially around the time of the civil war. In Americas history the Great Depression was probably the closest that we came to an economic collapse.…
Have you ever been forced to change your personality while you are around a certain group of people? Growing up I questioned the every detail about my life and my race. I did not know who or what I was. Being an African American girl in America everyone expected me to be illiterate and ghetto. Ghetto is a term used describe someone who is loud and obnoxious. Whenever I spoke my friends would stop me. They said that I was acting white and that I spoke that way. They told me to come back to acting black. There was not a day that went by that I was not called an oreo. An oreo is an African American who is black on the outside but white on the inside. Why was my intelligence defined by a stereotype? Every time I did something that normal African…