Barriers To Income Inequality

One month, the family is struggling to pay for groceries and rent, the next they are all living in mansion, driving expensive cars, and eating at expensive restaurants. In White households, the expectancy to go through many stages of school and earn various degrees in order to achieve this level of living is more standard. “The percentage of associates degrees attained increased by a small amount over bachelors degrees attained by Blacks in the academic year of 2000-2001. In all of the masters degrees acquired, Blacks were accountable for 8%, and a small portion of first professional and doctoral degrees, only accounting for 7% and 5% of those. Whites were said to have obtained the highest number of degrees,” (Hoffman, 2204: 1). It is our goal to use our research to prove this point.

The first determinant of one’s fate is their family’s background. Almost none of the children from low-income families made it through college. With the expenses of college today, I’m actually not surprised by that statistic. Of the children from low-income families, only 4 percent had a college degree at age 28, compared to 45 percent of the children from higher-income backgrounds. "That 's a shocking tenfold

Recently there has been a lot of debate about the importance of college education. Students are asking if it’s worth the debt to attend a four year university or community college. Some are thinking what are the benefits of a degree is in the workforce. With college tuition increasing and state fundings lowering, low income students are struggling to attain a higher education. College institutions should have a role to provide students higher education and equal opportunity to students to increase social mobility yet intergenerational reproduction of privilege has produced inequality in education.

The issue of income inequality in the United States is complicated and does not have a definite answer. Income inequality can be measured in a few different ways. The first measurement for the income inequality in a country is to look at the percentages on households and group them into income categories, called distribution by income category. The second measurement for income inequality is called distribution by quintiles or fifths. This is when you divide the total number of people, households, families into five groups called quintiles to examine the percentage of total before tax income received by each quintile. Each quintile would then be ordered by income and households in the category.

America has a lengthy history on how it became the powerful country it is today, and although its history can be interrupted in many ways (depending who you ask) one thing that is for certain is that wealth has yet to be distributed equally amongst minorities. According to the article “Income inequality matter; Extreme gap in wealth makes society unstable.” Philip Meyer claims that the wealth gap between whites and minorities has existed since Ronald Reagans’ term of presidency (A9). Although Ronald Reagans’ term ended many years ago the mistakes that caused this imbalance of wealth (and its aftermath) while he was in office remains almost if not exactly the same as when the problem initially began (Meyer A9). The wealth gap continues to target minorities and is affecting our communities at an alarming rate, however, many attempts have been made to reduce its existence but the factors of income inequality, unemployment rates and discrimination before and after our recent 2007 recession prevents our country from eliminating such a toxic problem.

Earning a college degree has long been considered—one of the major keys in achieving the American Dream. However, contrary to popular belief, that theory has been proven invalid. According to a recent study from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRBOSL), “Education does not help black and Hispanic college graduates protect their wealth the same way that it does for their white and Asian counterparts.”

Minorities do worry about the cost of higher education, but they understand this is a vestment in their children’s future. “Solid majorities of Hispanics, Asian-Americas, and to a slightly lesser extent, African-Americans all agreed that ‘young people today need a four-year college degree in order to be successful’ Most minority families understands that education is the key to fulfilling the American Dream that each generation will live better than he generation before them” (Brownstein pg. 1). Twenty years ago you could graduate from high school, find an entry level position and in time with work experience, you could work your way up to a higher paying positions without needing a college degree. Now days that is not the case, most entry level positions require some type of trade certification or an associated degree. So what has changed in the last twenty years? Employers want their employees to have a college degree and the way we are encouraging and prepare our teens for

Inequality is not favorable in society. There is inequality in many aspects of our society, such as race, and gender. The main inequality we look at is income inequality in the United States. The one percent of the population control a vast majority of the United States currency. The Gini coefficient has been increasing ever since the Industrial Revolution, a period where education, manufacturing, and economics has shown growth. However, income inequality has increased in the Industrial Revolution. There are many events, and causes that have led to the rise of income equality in the United States.

Despite large growth in college enrollment among blacks and Hispanics there are still many racial/ethnic disparities in their rates of college degree attainment (Zhan 2014). Student loan debt is believed to have a bigger effect on minority students than their white counterparts because minority students are more likely to use student loan debt to help them receive their education. Also since parents have a huge impact on the amount of debt a student may obtain minorities may be at a disadvantage. Minority students are more likely to come from a single parent household where their parent likely did not receive a college education or attain their degree. Minority students who are attending college in the last decade had parents who likely were born in the sixties-seventies. This was a time when racial segregation and white supremacy were still very much alive in the America. Therefore many minorities, especially African Americans, did not attend college. This brings us back to the “Reproduction of advantage theory” (Houle 2013). Since a large majority of minorities parents did not receive a college education they most likely were in the low to middle income bracket. This means an overwhelming amount of minorities accumulate a large amount of student loan debt when compared to the white population. This causes many minorities to drop out and not attain their degree or not

Jay Matthews presents a different view on college admission in his article Multiplying Benefits of College for Everybody by showing the positive impact college has had on many, specifically low-income women, to make a statement on how important equal opportunities are. Matthews says, “at the moment only about a third of American adults have graduated from college, and the economy appears to have room for many more” (143). Matthews also points out that “millions of low-income Americans, their data demonstrate, have the ability to use college to acquire new skills and capabilities that improve their lives, and their children’s lives, in significant ways” and that “higher education… still is one of

This article examines the rampant issue of income inequality that has plagued the United States for decades. From the 1970s onward, the 1% of Americans are accumulating more wealth created in the country, leaving the other 99% to scrounge around for the rest; some of these citizens live below the poverty line and may not know if they have enough money to keep the lights on for another month. Evaluating various other reports under the social interpretation of the social conflict theory, the results from most of these findings support the expansion of the labor union’s bargaining power to protect its workers as well as an overhaul of federal and state laws concerning taxes more likely paid by the upper class of citizens.

Health care and other medical needs have risen so that the middle class can not even afford it. (Eskow, p2) mentions that “The Affordable Care Act was designed to increase the number of Americans who are covered by health insurance. But health coverage in this country is the worst of any highly developed nation—and that’s for people who have health insurance.” Since the enactment of the ACA, the costs of healthcare coverage has doubled or even tripled for many Americans. This financial burden has been felt most by the middle class, who don’t qualify for any credits against the costs. All of these factors have led to downward economic mobility.

For the past 30 years the “gap” in income received by the rich and everyone else has continuously continued to increase, showing no signs of decrease anytime soon. This gap has mostly affected the middle class, which is made up of mostly African Americans and Hispanics, making America less determined to correct such an issue. Given the circumstances African American’s are the focus of this issue. It is known that modern racism exist within today’s society in various ways, one which happen to be within the economy. For decades the economy has has its downfalls, however, it’s been facing a issue that it has been hiding from the rest of the nation. The gap that everyone has been speaking of is only becoming more of issue, however, what many do not know is that African American’s are the ones who are feeling it the most. Given their history and place in society racial inequality. Modern racism has kept many blacks from receiving jobs and has kept them from many opportunities. Income inequality is an issue and it has been pushed aside for long enough it is now too big to avoid and it is time to therefore address it. It is due to such an act that the need for government assistance has increased, poverty levels are at an alltime high as are unemployment rates; and education levels are continuing to drop. The racial inequality African American face has come to affect their income earnings, which has affected education systems and poverty levels it is time such a issue is put to

According to a study by a team of researchers at the University of Albany, 19% to 21% of white students with student loans defaulted (failed to pay on time), whereas, 33% to 56% of African Americans defaulted (Volwein et al. 1998: 216). The report cites loans and especially loan defaults as a source of extreme stress and pressure to succeed that often detract from academic achievement instead of aiding it (Volkwein et al. 1998). This is evident in the data provided by the United States Board of Education that showed black students GPA (2.47 average) to be .41 points lower than the white student average of 2.88 (2009). Interestingly, even those who do perform similarly to their white counterparts are less likely to reap the benefits of their success. A research team at Georgetown University found, “Among African-American and Hispanic college students who score more than 1200 out of the possible 1600 points on the SAT/ACT, 57% eventually get a certificate, an Associate’s degree, or a Bachelor’s degree or better; for white students the percentage rises to 77%” (VerBruggen 2013: 1). This statistic, along with all others from the quantitative side of literature on this issue, blatantly point out the disparity in access to academic resources, academic performance before and during college, stress caused by student loans, and opportunities following college between white and minority

One of the challenges American workforces that facing today is income inequality. The fact of income inequality is something we become increasingly aware of here in the 21st century in the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, some of the perceived factors that may affect income inequality challenges are globalization, technology, race, gender and age discrimination, imbalance between population and job creations, and education that they received. These factors, drawing out the main points, and decide which factors are the most critical when it comes to determining income, or promotions of the American workforces. It rose as the issue of great concern to working families across America. In other words, for many in the workforce,