Economic Inequality In The United States

In the United States, high standard of living is not equally shared with in the Americans. The 1970s and 1990s was period where economic inequality began to grow. Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor at UC Berkeley has been doing a research for the U.S. income inequality. He states that there has been an increase since the 1970s, and has reached levels that have not been seen since 1928. “In 1928, the top 1% of families received 23.9% of all pretax income, while the bottom 90% received 50.7%. But the Depression and World War II dramatically reshaped the nation’s income distribution, by 1944 the top 1%’s share was down to 11.3%, while the bottom 90% were receiving 67.5%, levels that would remain more or less constant for the next three decades. But starting in the mid- to late 1970s, the uppermost percent income share began rising dramatically, while that of the bottom 90% started to fall.”(DeSilver) Ever since then, economic inequality continues to increase, especially in the last three decades.

The land of freedom, the United States, is the Promised Land for all. Its citizen can be much as prosperous as they want. Nonetheless, a phenomenon has occurred gradually that has changed the economy, social levels, income, and wealth of all Americans. This is called inequality. Inequality has become a social problem since people has not raised their voice take advantage of voting, large corporations as CEOs who take instead of give.

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.

The documentary “Inequality for All” focusing on Robert Reich, a Berkeley professor, Harvard graduate, and previous Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, argues how the United States economy is struggling with the widening income gap; indeed, since the 1970’s, the income gap between the wealthy and middle class has continued to widen which has created many problems within this country.

Vermont Senator and presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, said it best when he said “A nation will not serve morally or economically when so few have so much, and so many have so little.” This quote perfectly describes the issue that The United States is currently dealing with: income inequality. Income inequality is the gap between how much money is made by the rich and everyone else in the nation. It also refers to the unequal distribution of wealth among people in a population. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the gross domestic product (GDP) in the United States has steadily been rising, making it seem as though economic growth is stable (Inequality for All). However, it does not take into account the increasingly widening gap between the 1% and the 99% of the nation’s population. Government officials should pay closer attention to income inequality in The United States because ignoring the issue ultimately hurts American citizens.

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.

The United States is often viewed as a wealthy and stable country, but as shown in 2011, “the richest fifth of American households received about 51.1 percent of total income, while the poorest fifth received about 3.2 percent” (McConnell). There are many sources of income inequality that effect poverty in the United States and the role that discrimination plays in reducing and increasing wages for different people and how the people of the United States are affected by it.

society, the idea of income inequality is a frequent topic of argument. Many believe that a large income inequality distribution has a negative effect on a society, while others feel that it has very minor, nonexistent, or even positive effect. Some of the factors that affect the income inequality in the United States are low minimum wages, education, and discrimination of race and gender. The swelling income inequality gap in the United States has created numerous social, health, and human capital problems. There is a ton of information to digest regarding who the majority of money is split between and who is actually benefitting from it. There are numerous factors that affect the income inequality and the data associated with the results of it are rather

Income inequality has been a progressively growing issue in the United States, even today. The problem dates back all the way to the Great Depression, although some researchers tend to think that it is older than that. The difference between the wealth of higher-income families and lower-income families has become a great issue. Many people, including our government, think that they know how they can fix it. They have tried time and time again to come up with solutions, yet we are still facing the same obstacle that we were almost one hundred years ago. The effects that this dilemma is setting forth for our United States’ economy, environment, and even our education is repulsing.

Income inequality in the United States has been increasing gradually as from the 20th century where there was economic stability. It is estimated that around a quarter of the American worker population receives not more than $10 in an hour. Through this condition, it creates an income that is below what the federal poverty level demands. Those who receive low income include the fast food employees, cashiers, nurse's aides and many more. Other individuals get good payments which are above $10 per hour. Wealth inequality in America is quite common as there are those who are the major economic block and those who can’t afford even the three meals in a day. The social issues that income and wealth inequality might cause in the United States include poverty, household debts becoming high, high crime rates, no health insurance for the low-income families, high mobility rates, high crime rates and school dropouts.

“The Congressional Budget Office has concluded that between 1979 and 2007, the imbalance in income has more than tripled between the top 1 percent of the population and the majority” (Reich). After federal taxes and transfer payments, the income of the top 1 percent rose by 275 percent, while it rose less than 40 percent for the middle, working, and lower classes and only 18 percent for the under-class. “According to the Census Bureau, average household incomes have been declining, while the income of the wealthiest 1 percent has risen by 31 percent. Economist, Emmanuel Saez, has estimated that about 95 percent of all economic gains since the recovery of the 2008 recession have gone to the top 1 percent” (Reich).

Although the United States is considered one of the best countries in the world, we still have many issues. One of the biggest ones being income inequality. In the United States, economic prosperity is not in reach for everyone. In the movie Inequality For All Robert Reich talks about how big of an issue income inequality is and the opportunities available to the average American.

Inequality in America Inequality is something that people all over the United States have faced for years. When people think of inequality, they often think of it as something that really isn’t a problem in our country anymore. Many believe that inequality is a thing of the past and that the United States is the country where people are always treated equally. However, that is not the case. We still often hear about and witness cases of inequality.

The film Inequality for All really opened my eyes to a huge and growing problem in the United States, and that is inequality. Our country functions best when it has a healthy and growing middle class. That hasn't been the case for the middle class in over 20 years. The problem that we have is that the rich keep getting richer and the middle class wages stay the same, and sometimes even get lower, causing the inequality percentage to rise. The movie stated that in 1978 the average male worker made $48,302 and the average top 1% made $393,682, and in 2010 that same male worker makes $33,751 and top 1% now makes more than 1 million dollars on average. The richest 400 people in the united states have more money than over half the population combined.