Preview

Why the rich get richer and poor gets poorer.

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1192 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why the rich get richer and poor gets poorer.
Rich get Richer and Poor get Poorer

In today's world people want to be healthy, happy and well educated and most want to own some type of capital. They also want to be well paid for the work that they do and they prefer to pay as little tax as possible. While everybody is happier when the rate of inflation is low and when the economy is growing and everyone is getting better off. In booming economic times, such as we recently have enjoyed, the only problem is that "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer." Because company profits have been down but the head executives are still getting all the perks, like, stock options, and bonuses that's capitalism and that is the American dream.

Poverty is a problem the government has been trying to fix. Many welfare programs help the poor, whom are individuals who lack food, shelter, and clothing, with food stamps, and assistance for both transportation and childcare. From 1996 to recent years the policies on welfare reform have become more stringent on receiving benefits, the government has been working harder on training and placing individuals in the work force.

An article by Martin Hattersley says that one in five children in the U.S. lives in poverty, and 1.3 million are homeless, a 100% increase in the past ten years. Over a fifteen year period, the family incomes of the lowest 20% of the U.S. population have shrunk by more than a fifth. The incomes of the highest 20% have risen by thirty per cent and the poorest fifth of the United States population have less than one twenty-fifth of the country's total income: the highest fifth have approximately half. This means the gap between the rich and poor has broaden throughout the years.

The problem of the poorest of the population is that the fact that they don't have any ownership of any of the resources. Another problem is the cost of interest, tax and rent which have made the difference between being rich and poor in the world that we live in.

Martin Hattersley

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Dollar General

    • 2853 Words
    • 12 Pages

    Bibliography: Chinni, Dante. "Poverty 's Changing Profile in the U.S." PBS. PBS, 07 Nov. 2011. Web. 29 Apr.…

    • 2853 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    There were many improvements to America and one of those is the proportion of families living in houses that lacked plumbing declined from 20 percent in 1960 to 11 percent. Also, during the 1960s, black family income rose 53 percent (Mintz). According to the official poverty rate, the proportion of our population below the poverty line was dropping quickly. In the years of 1959 and 1966 the proportion of our country living in poverty dropped from 22.4 to 14.7 percent. Since then, it had reached an all-time low of 11.1 percent in 1973 then it went back up shortly after (Eberstadt).…

    • 445 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Lauter, David. "Income Inequality Emerges as Key Issue in 2016 Presidential Campaign." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 5 Feb. 2015. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.…

    • 1528 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Social inequality has been evident for many years as the growing inequality between poor and rich teens has only grown worse throughout countries in North America and Europe. America has the second largest population of people in poverty from a survey of 34 different developed countries.The poor should be made a priority of the government because…

    • 1374 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Welfare is a government program that provides money, medical care, food, housing, and other things that people need in order to survive. People who can receive help from these welfare programs are children, elders, the disabled, and others who cannot support their families on their current income. The welfare program has gone from a well-meaning program designed to sustain people who are unable to work and provide for their children, to a program that has become counterproductive to eliminating the unending dependence of the recipients. It must be understood that the welfare system, as we know it, must be fixed over a long period of time; but unfortunately there are no quick fixes.…

    • 796 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Poverty is the root to Welfare. States need to find the cause of poverty and find a solution to cure it. When Lyndon Johnson launched the War on Poverty back in the 1960s, he intended it to strike “at the causes, not just the consequences of poverty”(Marshall & Rector). In addition, not only to relieve the system of poverty, but to cure it and above all, to prevent it” (Marshall & Rector). Welfare to Work is…

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why are the majority of America’s citizens in poverty? Why can’t they get out? These questions can be fully assessed but is there a real solution? “You know, Mom, being poor is very expensive.” (Sandy Brash, at age twelve) (p.13). this quote sums the book up very nicely and helps explain some ideas more clearly. Many people struggle with their day to day lives as if they’re just trying to survive out in society. Many of these low classes to middle class citizens needs’ go unfulfilled on a monthly basis and their day’s most likely gets worse as the progress. In America today, 80% of its citizens are low class workers facing poverty but what you wouldn’t expect, is that some are actually happy with their living arrangements. Being poor has its down falls, there are many contributing factors that bring people down but these can actually help an individual or family rise above poverty.…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the state of Rhode Island, 15% of the population is facing the struggle of poverty, based on Rhode Island KIDS COUNT. But , how should Rhode Islanders deal with poverty? Poverty is the state of having little or no money, few or no material possessions or it’s also referred as lacking basic human needs, such as clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter, because of the inability to afford them. Nearly half the 6 billion people in the world are poor. As a matter of definition, there are three degrees of poverty: extreme poverty, moderate poverty and relative poverty. Extreme poverty, defined by the World Bank as getting by on an income of less than $1 a day, means that households cannot meet basic needs for survival. ("TIME Magazine: How to End Poverty." Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. 14 Mar. 2005. Web. 24 May 2011. ). The world as a whole faces the struggle of poverty, America as well. Although the United States is one of the wealthiest counties in the world, it still struggles with the problem of poverty. The reason for that is because the United States does a lot of trading with other countries. People in the United States live in a rich country, that has a large amount of capital machinery. This machinery is necessary to produce things relative to the…

    • 2657 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Insular Poverty

    • 1447 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Nobody wants to be considered to be below the poverty line. Unfortunately, for fourteen percent of the people in this country, that is their reality. Fourteen percent of the people currently living in the United States’ basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter are not being met. Poverty is experienced at different levels in different parts of the country. The causes and effects of insular poverty are experienced differently in rural and urban areas in the United States.…

    • 1447 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Poverty in the United States

    • 7172 Words
    • 29 Pages

    Although the United States of America is the envy of the world because of its great resources and advanced technology a great many of its residents live in poverty. In fact, a 12.6% of the population lives below the minimum standards required to maintain adequate health, diet, and shelter (Babbie, 2004). There evidence to suggest that those who live in poverty are also discriminated against in schools,…

    • 7172 Words
    • 29 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Anti-poverty programs are designed, selected, and implemented in response to different theories about the cause of poverty that justify the human services field and its development of interventions. The definition of poverty and its theories are rooted in research traditions and political values. They are reinforced by encompassing social, political and economic institutions that have a stake in the issue. Thus, a purely objective explanation of poverty is displaced by a proliferation of socially defined issues and concerns from both liberal and conservative perspectives. No one theory of poverty has emerged that either subsumes or invalidates the others (Blank, 1997).…

    • 3652 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Poverty in the United States today has many faces. There’s the pleading face of a middle-aged man on a city street holding up a sign that says “Hungry, Need Help.” There’s the anxious face of a young child in a schoolroom somewhere, whose only real meal today will be a free school lunch. There’s the sad face of a single mother who doesn’t have enough money to buy clothes for her children. And there’s the frustrated face of a young man working at a minimum-wage job who can't afford to pay his rent.…

    • 1406 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Poverty and American Dream

    • 1352 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In 2010, about 46.2 million people were considered poor. The nation’s poverty rate rose to 15.1 percent, whereas in 2009, 14.3 percent of people in America were living in poverty (Censky, 2011). That is an increase of 2.6 million people in 2010. In the United States, the federal poverty line – an absolute measure of annual income – is frequently used to determine who is categorized as poor (Ferris &ump; Stein, 2008, 2010). Currently the government defines the poverty line as an income of $11,139 for an individual and $22,314 for a family of four (Censky, 2011). In sociology, poverty can be defined using two terms – relative deprivation and absolute deprivation. Relative deprivation is a comparison between people and social class. With relative deprivation, people are considered poor if their standard of living is less than that of other members of society (Ferris &ump; Stein, 2008, 2010). Absolute deprivation is an objective measure of poverty, whereby people are considered poor because he or she is incapable to meet minimal fundamentals such as food, shelter, health care and material objects. Is it difficult to participate in society for those who live in an impoverished life? Many would say that people living in poverty are behind in our cultural movement; that he or she lack the essentials to be on an equal level with the rest of society. Many theories have been applied to the issue of poverty with controversy over how and if the poverty problem should be addressed. Inequality, homelessness, and the idea of the American dream also has an influence on poverty.…

    • 1352 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the article “The Rich Are Different from You and Me,” author Chrystia Freeland explains the rising phenomenon of income inequality that is occurring between the richest top 10% and bottom 90% of the population. Chrystia Freeland states “In every society, some people are richer than others, but across time and geography, the gap between the rich and the rest has widely varied. The reality today is that the rich-especially the very, very rich- are vaulting ahead of everyone else” (51). Between the years of 2002 and 2007, income statistics show that the gap between the richest 10% and the bottom 90% of the population had significantly increased. Statistics also show that by 2007, approximately 35% of the wealth was maintained by the top 10%, leaving about 27% of wealth to the bottom 90% of the population. This is about an 8% gap in between. The last time income inequality was this high was in the 1920’s, but back then only 20% of wealth was gained from work. Today the top 10% gains at least 60% of their wealth from work, rather than inheritance. As economies throughout the world mature, income inequality will continue to rise. The gap between the rich and all others is primarily found in United States. Other countries such as Canada, China, and the United Kingdom are beginning to see income inequality as well. Freeland also states that “These global super- rich work and play together” (52). They share common interests such as business traveling, and vacationing around the world. Due to the common interests shared by others most like themselves, they have become separated from all others within the population, and have formed their own world governed by plutocracy. Author Chrystia Freeland is concerned that because the rich are so caught up in their world of wealth that they will not recognize that other…

    • 385 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    There are many factors why a person may end up in poverty. There are causes that have remained the same, such as paying for basic necessities such as food, shelter, and medical care. As of recent, a new factor has disabled the poverty ridden even further. The American Recession of 2008 weakened the United States economy, and because of this, many Americans lost their jobs. Wages remained the same, while the cost of living went up. Many hoping to sell their homes were crushed when the housing market crashed, reducing the value of their property. Mortgages and rents increased, many Americans could not keep up on these crumbling bills with their stagnant wages, some were pushed to the extreme, homelessness (“Helping the Homeless” 1). The United States Census Bureau determines poverty as one adult and a single related child living in a household with a $15,030 or less annual income. Extreme poverty is depicted as those whose income is 50% less than that of the poverty rate (“Poverty facts and figures” 1). This income is not entirely at the disposal of the individual. This income must first go through taxes, and must then be split to accommodate other aspects of the person's life-such as debts and expenses that they may have accumulated. After all these needs are met, there is not much left, assuming that this person has a steady paying job. To make ends meet, the individual may seek assistance from the government in the form of money, food, or…

    • 1810 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays