Analysis Of Terry Pratchett 's ' Captain Samuel Vimes '

In “Economic Elites, Investments, and Income Inequality” from the academic journal, Social Forces, graduate Ph. D student from Ohio State University, Michael Nau presents throughout his study the rise of an additional factor that has evidently influenced the concentration of vast amounts of income among the elite class, income from investments. In this era, the common belief is that demographics, labor market institutions, and technology are causing the inequality to rise and for the elites to produce astounding amounts of income. Nau’s findings present how the debate over the incomes of the elites has to be expanded apart from the ‘working rich class’ to also include the income producing wealth. In addition, Nau presents how the

2 Hope Forpeace. ”20% of Americans own 93% of American Wealth and They Should All Get Tax Cuts,” Newsvine. 2010. Accessed January 14, 2013. http://salemsage.newsvine.com/_news/2010/06/06/4471117-20-of-americans-own-93-of-american-wealth-and-they-should-all-get-tax-cuts

Wealth gives not as fortunate people the allusion that the wealthy are happy because they are able to do whatever they want to. It imprisons a person because people do have that mindset and don’t always think that they can use their money for good.

Furthermore, when analyzing the different classes, and the distributions of wealth and income in the United Sates; for instance, the upper, middle, and lower classes – it is an astronomical amount of wealth that the top 1 percent acquire. It is also noted by Johnson & Rhodes (2015), “that income and wage inequality have risen sharply over the last thirty years” (pg. 228). Equally important to this, is how the average change in income is divided in Americas quintiles and the widening gaps. For example, in Table 5.2, while the lowest fifth quintile increased from $11,128 to $11,361 – a difference of $233.00 from years 2006 to 2012; the highest quintile increased from $289,446 to $319,918 – an exponential increase of $30,472 (pg. 229). With income inequalities at this rate, it is difficult for the majority of the United States to experience upward social mobility. Pursuing this further, in a line stated by Johnson and Rhodes (2015), “The wealthiest Americans can live on the dividends from their investments without having to touch the principle or work for a salary” (pg. 230). From this, it is visible to see how society has compartmentalized different levels of functions to keep a so called balance for the greater

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.

“A Harvard businessman interviewed 5,000 Americans on how they thought wealth in the United States was distributed” (Wealth Inequality video). They assumed that the wealth was distributed a little unfairly, with the top 20% owning most of the wealth in a low but even decline into poverty. Then he asked them what they thought would be the ideal distribution of wealth, 92% of them (at least 9/10) said that they thought an “ideal” distribution had the top 20% barely distinguishable from the middle class with the bottom percent not too worse off than the bottom 20% of the middle class. The reality of how wealth in the U.S. is budgeted looks something a like this: the top 20% owning well of half of all the nation’s wealth, the middle class is now as worse off as what citizens thought the bottom 20%

Despite Conwells experiences, his audience repeatedly tried to prove him wrong and noted how awful it was that a Christian minister prefered to advise people to get rich rather than to preach the gospel. But Conwell believed that to make money honestly was to preach the gospel and to be poor was wrong. What the people did not understand was that a wealthy person can also be a pious person. Conwell tells the people that they should have money and it is their Christian and godly duty to do so. To be pious is to be carful of the duties owed by created beings to God; devout, godly, religious¹. The people associated wealth with being dishonest, dishonerable, mean, and contemptible. He told them that to think that to be pious you must be poor and awfully dirty is an terrible misconception.

The highest earning fifth of U.S. families earned 59.1% of all income, while the richest earned 88.9% of all wealth. A big gap between the rich and poor is often associated with low social mobility, which contradicts the American ideal of equal opportunity. Levels of income inequality are higher than they have been in almost a century, the top one percent has a share of the national income of over 20 percent (Wilhelm). There are a variety of factors that influence income inequality, a few of which will be discussed in this paper. Rising income inequality is caused by differences in life expectancy, rapidly increases in the incomes of the top 5 percent, social trends, and shifts in the global economy.

I always believed that you are considered wealthy when you make a high income. According to the authors, most high income earners are not rich, which surprised me. Most people with high incomes fail to accumulate any lasting wealth. They live hyper-consumer lifestyles, they spend their money as fast as they earn it. I always perceived millionaires as living the lavish life with their big sport utility vehicles and huge mansions. Well I was wrong, in

This “middle-class nation” is struggling to support all those who live in its borders and the misconceptions about wealth are vastly overrated. Furthermore, the idea of wealth and stability is incorrect, and there is a very sharp contrast between the rich and poor in the country. As the richest twenty percent of American hold ninety percent of the total household of the total household wealth in the country, those at the bottom have managed very poorly and suffer to get through the days.

Also income is less concentrated than wealth. Also the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is the main source to obtain information related the allocation of wealth for household. The SCF income distribution received approximately a third of all income in 2013 data also shows that the top 3 percent of the, while the top 3 percent of the wealth distribution held 54 percent of all wealth (Stone, et al).  Similarly, the top 10 percent of the income distribution received a little less than half of all income, while the top 10 percent of the wealth distribution held three-quarters of all wealth. In fact, the average wealth has amplified over the past 50 years, but it has not developed equally for all groups

Wealth in america is only reserved for the top 1%. Even out of those who live in the

The four dimensions of inequality include wealth, income, education, and occupation. In the United States people are ranked differently from everyone based on these four dimensions. A person’s economic circumstance is governed by wealth and income. Wealth is a personal net worth and income is the amount of money earned. Income is annual and wealth is generational. Both are distributed unequally in society, while wealth is of more importance. Only some are able to achieve wealth while 19 million Americans are living below half of the government’s line. The contribution of wealth is unequal, for example, the richest 1% in 2004 had 190 times the wealth of the median household. Or also, the top 1 percent of wealth holders control 34% of total household wealth, which is more than the combined wealth of the bottom 90%. Income inequality is increasing in the U.S society. There is in an increasing gap in the difference of earnings between the heads of corporations and the workers in those corporations. In 1980, the average CEO of a corporation was paid forty-two more times than the average worker. Education: the amount of formal education an individual achieves is determinant of their occupation, income, and prestige. There is a similarity between being inadequately educated and receiving little or no income. Evidence shows that in 2008, the annual earnings of college graduates are more than double non-high

Many proponents of capitalism argue that the wealth is shared with the workers. But is it true? According to an annual report in 2008, an average American CEO makes as much money in one day compared to what an average worker earns in one year1. And the disparity between business leaders and average workers continues to grow over time. From 1990 to 2005, the CEO’s salaries increased almost 300%, while a worker received a scant 4.3%2. The social consequence of this disparity is the concentration of wealth on a small percentage of population.

​Through observations of the rich, a man or woman who has obtained richness often times are lacking in character traits that makes up a good man or women.  For example, Donald Trump as a