The Hidden Concept: Privilege: Self Analysis

This semester I explored the issue of inequality. When I first began writing about this topic, I was very eager to learn about it, but was not particularly educated about it. Even writing my first essay, “The Hidden Concept: Privilege”, helped me explore what economic inequality meant to me. Before writing that essay I was aware that I grew up in a family that had economic privilege. However, I did not truly understand many of its implications on my thinking and the way I contributed to society until writing that essay. It also helped me to understand that many people, and many of my friends did not have the same experience as I did and therefore it shapes their views and thinking.
The following essay I wrote, and the one I am currently revising,
I enjoy edited and commenting on others’ papers and I also really enjoy hearing others’ opinions so this essay really excited me. One of the things that I learned from writing this essay was that just because people’s views may be convincing does not mean that their solution or ideas are correct. For instance, I read an op-ed that discussed how raising the minimum wage would not decrease income inequality, and would not help those in poverty. Instead, the author argued it would make low income families worse off and make our economy worse off. I was convinced. However, I met with you soon after reading that and discussing it in my paper and realized that even though some of the author’s points were valid, raising the minimum wage still fundamentally helps those in poverty by having a wage to live off. I began to understand why income inequality was not recognized by everyone and why policies were not more aimed at decreasing inequality.
The last essay, which we researched a subtopic of our broader topic really allowed me to delve into my topic more and explore something I was very interested in within income inequality. I researched the mental health effects of poverty related stress, which ended up being an even broader topic than I expected. The health effects of income inequality, when presented to people, help people, including me, to realize what a pressing and important issue income inequality is to