America 's Income And Wealth Inequality

James Madison once stated inequality of the rich and poor predicament to be “evil” and believed that the government should avoid an “immoderate, and especially unmerited, accumulation of riches” (Johnston, 2016). As one of the founding fathers of our nation, James Madison had a concern about the separation between the rich and the poor. He felt the government should do what it could to avoid the separation, which one can infer that he meant for the government to tax the rich by a greater percentage, thus reducing the financial burden on the poor. A rift has always been present between the rich and the poor throughout history. Depending upon the job, the working class may or may not make enough to support a family. At this point, the

Income Inequality in America is a problem that’s been going on for decades, and many feel that it hardly exists, the many people that feel that way are highly uneducated, and seem to not really care about this tremendous problem that in one’s eyes really has no end in the near future, in fact it has been gradually rising and one feels that it’s just not fair. Unfortunately, there’s not much that can be done, only of course if the poor class of people decide to actually educate themselves and get a higher education. One says poor class, simply because that’s how they’re classified. There are five types of levels that Americans are classified as, and they are: 1. Upper Class, 2. Upper Middle Class, 3. Middle Class, 4. Working Class, 5. Poor.

According to Inequality.org, “We equate wealth with ‘net worth,’ the sum total of your assets minus liabilities. Assets can include everything from an owned personal residence and cash in savings accounts to investments in stocks/bonds, real estate, and retirement accounts. Liabilities cover what a household owes: a car loan, credit card balance, student loan, mortgage, or any other bill yet to be paid. In the United States, wealth inequality runs even more pronounced than income inequality” (Wealth). Wealth disparity affects everyone in America. When the top twenty percent of earners in America take over fifty percent of total earnings in any given year, It can be see as very unfair by anyone who is in the middle class and especially the lower class of citizens in the U.S. It is safe to say that both sides of the political world (Republicans and Democrats) are equally worried about how economic inequality will affect their children and future generations. No matter who you ask, rich or poor, and whatever their opinion on the shape of economic distribution in America is, they most likely have a unrealistic sense of the state it is actually in.

"How Economic Inequality Harms Societies." Richard Wilkinson:. TED Talks, July 2011. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.

There is no doubt that wealth inequality in America has been escalating quickly; the portion of total income earned by the top one percent has doubled since the beginning of the 1970’s. The wealthy are the main beneficiaries

Americans today live in a distinctly unequal society. Inequality is now wider than it used to be in the last century, and the division in income, wages, and wealth are broader than they are in other developed economies of the world. Wealth inequality is the imbalance of wealth or income within a society, and it is one of the most vital economic challenge the US is facing today because the distribution of wealth is more dispersed, making the inequality in wealth distribution at its highest. While the matter has been discussed for many years, the actual income disparity in the U.S. has heightened and is now verging on an extreme gap that portends to impede long-term economic growth. The huge gap between the wealthy and poor is squeezing the U.S. economy, the wealth gap threatens economic growth by diminishing social mobility and producing a less-educated workforce who are not able to compete in the global economy. unrestrained level of income inequality causes political pressures, it discourages trade, investment, and hiring. The present level of income inequality in the U.S. is shrinking GDP growth, and the world's largest economy is struggling to recover from the Great Recession.

Amongst all of the presidential candidates of the 2016 race, one in particular stands above the rest. Bernie Sanders, running as a democrat, holds the highest capability to better the nation amongst all other candidates.

Imagine that the U.S economy is a group of ten people making a cake. Despite the fact that everyone contributed, one person would take 90% of the cake. The other nine would be left to fight over the renaming 10%. In what universe would this be a fair situation.

In the video, Wealth Inequality in America, there were many things that caught my attention the second time around that i had not understood the first time listening to it. When they had surveyed 5,000 people I was not surprised to see that the ideal for most Americans would be a somewhat even distribution of wealth among the various groups. What I was most shocked about was what most American think about the distribution of wealth is not even close to what the reality has to hold. The fact that lowest 20 - 30 percent don't even register as sharing in the wealth of America as they are behind the poverty line. They are living of “pocket change”. The top 1 percent didn't even shock me as much as how the middle class did.

After watching the video Wealth Inequality in America (2012) and reading the article Apple’s Retail Army, Long on Loyalty but short on Pay by David Segal (2012), I started reflecting on how blind we have become to the conception of America’s growing economy. While the social stratification is an ideal ladder, for the poor to middle classes to seek for economical growth to reach the top, the wealth class. There’s a misconception on how corporations are helping society’s economic growth. While growing in value for its shareholders, corporations are rising inequality among the workplace. The reality of an uneven economy is notorious for the poor, yet its magnitude is not imaginable by many. President Barack Obama has tried to address this issue with a proposal of raising

The uneven distribution of wealth started when more and more of the nation's wealth found its way into the pocketbooks of those who were already wealthy. This meant that other Americans were earning even less. Important industries during this time were also failing miserably, including coal mining, farming and textiles. As Americans had fewer and fewer dollars to purchase items, the demand for products and services fell.

Every American dreams of finding a job that pays well enough so that they may comfortably take care of their loved ones and themselves for years to come. Most Americans hope to find some way to make a living that they enjoy, something that they view as productive. Unfortunately, many do not have this luxury. In our society, a good portion of the population is forced to hold the base of our country in place while hardly being redeemed for their time and effort, and thus the problem of income inequality. Numbers of these people live from paycheck to paycheck, barely getting by, not because they manage their money poorly, but because the value of their time at work is negligible.

Out planet’s resources are not abundant everywhere, but they are rather unevenly scattered across the globe. Because of the natural unequal distribution of wealth such as food, raw materials, water, and others, some countries are in a much worse plight, if not in famine, than others. Although it is possible for a country with harsh environmental conditions to gain more wealth and overall nation’s satisfaction, in my view, the countries having more resources than is needed must help others in any possible way. This support must be provided due to climatic and cultural reasons.

Inequality has been an issue in the United States for quite a long time, it is believed to be something that occurs naturally in our society. However, in the last few decades income inequality has grown at extraordinary rates which have sparked new questions about whether or not it occurs naturally or for exactly what reasons are American families living in such differing environments. The trend doesn’t only keep expanding but it shows no sign of stopping. Such high levels of inequality threaten the norms of social justice. With the top 1 percent now owning more wealth than ever, the question is, how can we stop the fast-growing gap that separates the poor from the wealthy? While some people might argue that income inequality is an inevitable issue, taking certain measures, such as fixing the broken tax system, raising the minimum wage, and making college more affordable can help reduce it while boosting economic growth.

Income inequality may be the most important and divisive topics in our society today. It has far reaching consequences that will affect all of us in the years to come. But in the future, we will all look back and think back to now, and think about how we got to where we did. How the political climate and the division of the country corrupted our ability to sort out what kind of society we want to be. The “Gotcha!” politics of today has devolved our elections and government into a popularity contest of who has the least skeletons in their closet, without much care to the actual policies of those elected. This has led to an almost inevitable spiral down to the rich in power, with everyone else fighting over petty issues. Many try to hold onto an America that only could exist in the mid-twentieth century, the America that McClelland says, “...was a historical fluke, made possible by the fact that the United States was the only country to emerge from that was with its industrial capacity intact,” (McClelland 550). That America is over, and it is time to start looking towards what the country must evolve into. That is where the issue of income inequality comes into play. We must look at its root causes, and change the system to dampen or remove those causes. More specifically, we must look at the increase in overall income of the top earners of society, the shrinking of the middle class, and the role of government in the economy.