Wealth Inequality In America Essay
Wealth Gap: Why America is threatening Democracy
The democratic ideal that “All men are created equal" is the basis of The Declaration of Independence and is deeply rooted in American history. However, this ideal is not as realistic when looking closer into American society. For instance, the idea of equality is never actually mentioned in The Constitution. The United States is known for being built on freedom and foreigners look to it as the possibility for the American dream, but there have been many key events in history that show the fragility of civil rights and the reality of inequality in the United States. Democracy is defined as a government created by the people and for the people. Human rights are necessary for a democratic system. …show more content…
There is no one cause for the wealth inequality, but there are many negative effects. The wealth gap in the U.S has been steadily increasing for decades, according to Piketti, it has now reached levels not seen since 1928 which was roughly the same time period as the Great …show more content…
Some causes could be Wall Street greed, political shifts, the great recession of 2008, deregulation, voter suppression, and even technological advances, but a large contributor is the income gap. Since the 1970’s, wages have remained relatively stagnant, at least for the poor and middle class. However, the average annual earnings of the top 1 percent of wage earners grew 156 percent from 1979 to 2007; for the top 0.1 percent they grew 362 percent (Sabadish 1). Concurringly, in comparison “earners in the 90th to 95th percentiles had wage growth of 34 percent, less than a tenth as much as those in the top 0.1 percent tier. Workers in the bottom 90 percent had the weakest wage growth, at 17 percent from 1979 to 2007” (Sabadish 1). Again, the income gap contributes to the wealth gap in that the people near the bottom have less money available to save and
The democratic ideal that “All men are created equal" is the basis of The Declaration of Independence and is deeply rooted in American history. However, this ideal is not as realistic when looking closer into American society. For instance, the idea of equality is never actually mentioned in The Constitution. The United States is known for being built on freedom and foreigners look to it as the possibility for the American dream, but there have been many key events in history that show the fragility of civil rights and the reality of inequality in the United States. Democracy is defined as a government created by the people and for the people. Human rights are necessary for a democratic system. …show more content…
There is no one cause for the wealth inequality, but there are many negative effects. The wealth gap in the U.S has been steadily increasing for decades, according to Piketti, it has now reached levels not seen since 1928 which was roughly the same time period as the Great …show more content…
Some causes could be Wall Street greed, political shifts, the great recession of 2008, deregulation, voter suppression, and even technological advances, but a large contributor is the income gap. Since the 1970’s, wages have remained relatively stagnant, at least for the poor and middle class. However, the average annual earnings of the top 1 percent of wage earners grew 156 percent from 1979 to 2007; for the top 0.1 percent they grew 362 percent (Sabadish 1). Concurringly, in comparison “earners in the 90th to 95th percentiles had wage growth of 34 percent, less than a tenth as much as those in the top 0.1 percent tier. Workers in the bottom 90 percent had the weakest wage growth, at 17 percent from 1979 to 2007” (Sabadish 1). Again, the income gap contributes to the wealth gap in that the people near the bottom have less money available to save and