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…
Imagine life is going great and within a second it turns dark and affects you and the millions around you. It was October 29, 1929, now known as “Black Tuesday” when the stock market crashed. The crash happened due to most people buying on credit. Some people got a loan to buy shares. The crash was on Wall Street in New York.…
In The Upside of Income Inequality by Gary Becker and Kevin Murphy, they discuss multiple ways that the pay difference is beneficial to people. Becker and Murphy deliberate on how the difference in pay has led to economic growth, more people seeking higher education, and how minorities have been effected. Right away Becker and Murphy delve into how China’s income inequality rose when they went through major economic development. There were people who were worried about the rising income inequality in the United States but as Becker and Murphy state “Politicians and many others in the United States have grown concerned that earnings inequality has increased among Americans. But as the example of China—or India, for that matter—illustrates,…
In “Income Inequality: Too Big to Ignore”, Frank shows the influences in Americans’ lives in different classes by the disparity between the rich and the poor. He arouses people’s consciousness for the “rising inequality” which is being polarized and has been causing immense damages to Americans, no matter which class they are. It is true that the “Income Inequality” in America is very obvious and affecting more and more people. Indeed, “we should just agree that it’s a bad thing”, however, are we able to do something concrete to deal with it effectively? Is the” rising inequality really required in the name of fairness”? I stand neutral towards Frank’s opinion.…
These are a few potential links between social inequalities and the health of the population: income and wealth distribution, unemployment, the ageing society, gender and health, mental illness and suicide and disability and dysfunction. I am going to discuss each of these and see the health impact on people in each group.…
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…
Economic inequality in the United States has increased tremendously throughout the past decades and has consequently led to many social conditions that negatively impact the lower and middle class. The unequal distribution of income and wealth is primarily due to the capitalist government economy that deregulates markets as well as globalization and technological advances. Political inequality is similarly another consequence that results from the economic disparity that further affects democracy and political representation of many Americans. This likewise leads to the creation of social movements, in which many unprivileged Americans seek government attention to overcome the inequality that exists amongst the socioeconomic classes.…
Income inequality means that there is no equality between people. Also, there are big differences between the rich and everyone else. This problem grows year after year. Some people become poor and other become rich. The American Dream is related to income because everyone who wants to achieve the American Dream must have a great income. Rich and poor people are all human beings, but poor people have stolen money from each other because they do not have a great experience to get money. Rich people have great experience in business because they received from his or her family, also they study in great school and university. In addition, education is one of the greatest things to have the huge income. People who study in higher education will…
Our much dated concept and measurement of health has generally focused on ill health form a physiological point of view. By the mid twentieth century, the health pictures had changed, people as a whole were no longer looked upon as disease ridden and ideas of positive health emerged. The WHO formulated its definition of health following the World War 2 during a period when the social health of societies was in question. The WHO exemplified the holistic model. According to the WHO. Health was and is still to be defined today as being the absence of illness as well as a combination of an individual’s physical, social, psychological and emotional condition these factors are considered determinants of one’s overall health.…
The healthcare system definitely has different demographics when it comes to race, age, socioeconomics, etc. Because the population is constantly changing, the health care resources are affected daily. With the aging population, there is room for advancement because with age comes certain illnesses and there is a much-needed percentage of care that is needed but not provided. Although, it is a dramatic difference in health among racial and ethnic groups as well. Each race has had its own life expectancy. “For example, compared to a baby born with a mother, a baby born to a black mother is more than twice likely, and an infant born to an American Indian or Alaska Native mother almost ½ times as likely, to die before reaching its first birthday”(DeVoe, Wallace & Fryer, 2009, p. 74). Also, a matter in health is the socioeconomic factors which include income and education. A person income can influence his or her ability to get the best care as needed. Where they live and go to school could determine their overall health status. People in poverty are most likely to have exposure to malnutrition or even extreme weather conditions. It has been found that poor health statuses are common in blacks and Hispanics than those who are white. The underlying issue for racial and ethnic groups is disparities in both access to and the quality of care that each race receives because of their financial situations (DeVoe, Wallace & Fryer, 2009). One should also consider the culture and religious differences in health care. In some cultures, male physicians will not see female patients. Then there are the cultures that do not take medicine or even visit doctor offices or hospitals because they believe that traditional medicines have harmful…
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.…
America is supposed to be all about equality, but if you take a serious look around, you will see that there is human rights issue going on all over America; this is just one of them. Things need to be reevaluated and adjusted as things change and growth happens, America do not seem to roll with the changes very well and are stuck in a moralistic, religious, patriarchal system. In recent years, the major concerns of economic development is the study of poverty, the income distribution and growth in the less developed countries or from all over the world have been doing researches and studies on how to induce a growth in those under developed countries.…
Inequalities in health exist, whether measured in terms of mortality, life expectancy or health status; whether categorised by socioeconomic measures or by ethnic group or gender. Recent efforts to compare the level and nature of health inequalities in international terms indicate that Britain is generally around the middle of comparable western countries, depending on the socioeconomic and inequality indicators used. Although in general disadvantage is associated with worse health, the patterns of inequalities vary by place, gender, age, year of birth and other factors, and differ according to which measure of health is used.…
If people aren’t earning enough a lot of money, all they need to do is work harder they’ll get ahead.…
Income distribution or redistribution as some call it takes place when money is taken away from someone and given to someone else. Most of the time it is taken away from someone who has earned it and given to someone who has not. Why does this happen and when did it begin? What are the benefits and what are the unintended consequences? I will try to answer these questions and give another option in the next few paragraphs.…