BBC News: Inequality For All

The gap between the upper class and the lower class is growing; the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Instead of helping the lower class, the upper class is spending their money on fancy houses and material objects. For example, in the outskirts of cities, the rich business owners are building large mansions to live in. On the other hand, the lower class live in tiny tenements in the heart of the city. Many are unemployed and starving. In addition, between 1865 and 1900 only a small percent of Americans grew wealthy showing that wealth is only being passed through families not gained. However this growing gap between rich and poor has allowed the growth of the middle class. This middle class made up of doctors, lawyers and other will help the will hopefully help lessen the gap between

The article I found describes the issue that the middle class in America is no longer the world’s richest, and compares this issue with other advanced countries. It states that in recent years, middle class families in America were receiving meager raised income than counterparts were around the world, and most of American families were receiving unequally income. Those income data were analyzed by LIS, a group that maintains the Luxembourg Income Study Databases, and by The Upshot, a New York Times website covering policy and politics, and also reviewed by outside-academic economists. The United States used to be a leader of after-tax middle-class income country among all the developed states, but now the other countries,

Inequality for All is a 2013 documentary written by former United States Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich. This documentary features scenes that showcase Reich's “Wealth and Poverty” class at the University of California at Berkeley. The film examines income inequality in the United States and the ever-widening gap between the wealthy and the middle class. Reich discusses how the gap between rich and poor has continued to expand over the years, and the probable consequences of this expansion. Furthermore, he proposes his idea of an economy that would benefit both the rich and the middle and lower classes.

In “inequality for all”, a documentary presented and narrated by Robert Reich, Reich discusses what is happening in terms of the distribution of income and wealth in the US, why it is happening, and is it a problem. “Inequality for all” is directed by Jacob Kornbluth, it premiered in 2013, and it runs for 90 minutes. Reich studied at the University of Oxford in during the late 1960’s, where he befriended future president Bill Clinton. Subsequently, they kept in touch, and in 1993, when Clinton was elected president, he reached out to Reich, to be secretary of labor. Reich was in office for the following four years, and today he is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. For about three decades now, Reich announced that out of all developed countries, the US has the most unequal distribution of wealth, and that inequality is getting even greater in the US. In the documentary, the most compelling topics covered by Reich, are the changes that started happening in the late 1970’s, the fact that 42 percent of Americans born into poverty stay poor, and that nowadays, money controls politics.

Robert Reich explained to us, "Income inequality is inevitable and is the essence of capitalism, but when the gap became too much, then it became a problem to the society. Today, the United States has the most inequality distribution of income of all the developed nations, the richest 400 Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million people put together"2. First of all, income inequality exists everywhere, it is not a problem for itself. Because of the income inequality, poor people know the life different between people, then they will work harder and harder to catch up to get rid of the poor, and to have a better life. The income inequality is a good thing when it is not much for is the source of power that makes people improve themselves. However, the data show that the income gap is too huge now, the income distribution is extremely unfair. 400 people have more money than the half of the nation, so now the great income inequality disturbs social inequality. Gregory Mantsios wrote "Class in America-2009", he provided some examples from the rich, middle class and poor family to discuss the different life condition of the different class in America. Mr. Mantsios state, "Despite what we like to think about ourselves as a nation, the truth is that

In “Confronting Inequality”, author Paul Krugman explains how bad income inequality is for the American economy while suggesting what to do to fix this growing problem. Krugman covers topics such as the cost of inequality, how the middle class is over extending themselves, education and health care all while appealing to all three rhetorical elements. Krugman’s article has an overall effective and persuasive argument because of the topics he covers and his appeal to the reader with pathos, logos and ethos.

Over the last several years the middle-class has continued to suffer a stall in incomes, while the upper class have had dramatic increases in their incomes. The middle-class have also had to bear more and more of the tax burden for social programs and struggle to make ends meet. Since Reconstruction, this disparity has been seen among those that are part of the upper class or top 1% in the country has had control of the majority of the wealth in the country. Capitalism continues to rule in US society and until some changes are made in balancing the wealth this will remain to be the rule rather than the

“Growing Apart: The Evolution of Income vs. Wealth Inequality” written by Michael Cragg and Rand Ghayad is an article about how wealth distribution in America has dramatically changed within the last three decades and how it has become one of the most political and economic trends in this nation. The main priority of the article is that it talked about how the wealth and financial statues in the United States has favored in the upper class and has opposed the middle and lower class within the last three decades. The first subdivision talked about how income inequality and wealth inequality are both different and how wealth inequality has a bigger negativity on the United States economic growth. The second subdivision talked about how if the

During the past couple of decades, the decline in the middle class has been associated to the political agenda of the Republican Party. By ending governmental subsidies and other programs created to build the middle class, has ultimately ceased the growth. However, realizing the importance of the middle class to our fragile economic platform, the Democratic and Independent political parties are desperately trying to create and revamp the middle class

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

The gap between the rich and poor in the United States is constantly growing, due to the fact that minimum wage is low for the poor but not for the rich. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. There is no gray area in this situation. According to A Project of The Institute for Policy Studies, “The top 0.1 percent is taking in over 184 times the income of the bottom 90 percent.” There

In Robert Reich documentary “Inequality for All” he makes a compelling discussion about the serious crises that the United States faces due the widening economic gap. He looks to raise awareness of the U.S. economic gap between the rich and poor. According to Reich the widening divide in America is real and growing. Income levels at the middle and labor class is stagnant and are at it’s lowest levels compared to upper class incomes since the beginning of WWII and is growing wider each year. Reich suggests that the economy runs more smoothly when the middle class has jobs with fair wages, when unions are strong, and when middle class workers have some extra money to spend if possible when the government uses the tax policy properly and when it raises the minimum wage regularly to control the income gap between labor and management. In other words Reich argues that economically healthy middle and labor class equality is the foundation of a thriving economy and is necessary to maintaining a sound national infrastructure and educational system within

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.

Over the past few decades, the “American Dream” vision has been quickly vanishing as a result of the increasing troubles and weakening of the middle class. It has lost the view of being the most successful and wealthy middle class in the world, while the middle classes in other countries are excelling in earning higher middle and lower class incomes. The issue of the declining wealth of the middle class explains a huge problem in the United States’ future prosperity and well being for the citizens and the country. There are many issues that affect the success of the middle and lower classes, such as structural differences in the economy, culture, and government. The gap between the middle and high classes is increasing specifically. The United States has the image of giving people life and prosperity, but inequality is increasing significantly due to issues in education, decrease in taxation among the upper class, and decrease of middle class power in the democracy, while other ideas and mechanisms can be take from other nations.

In other words, America has a widening gap between its wealthy and poor. As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, there is a problem emerging: the disappearance of the middle class. Low-wage workers continue to fall behind those who make higher wages, and this only widens the gap between the two. There has been an economic boom in the United States, which has made the country more prosperous than it has ever been. That prosperity does not reach all people; it seems to only favor the rich. Rising economic segregation has taken away many opportunities for the poor to rise in America today. The poor may find that the economic boom has increased their income; however, as their income increase so does the prices they must for their living expenses (Dreier, Mollenkopf, & Swanstrom 19).