Essay On Income Inequality For All

Each year income increases in the United States. Economic inequality and political inequality may have a connection where our democracy could be affected but americans have the ability to solve this problem. Economic inequality refers to wealth or income between different groups or a society as a whole. There have been past social movements that have tried to improve this problem such as women's suffrage and more. We are still trying to resolve this issue of economic inequality.

Along with globalization market forces has had the greatest impact on income equalities in the United Sates. Thomas Piketty says that “by definition, in all societies, income inequality is the result of adding up these two components: inequality of income from labor and inequality of income from capital. The more unequally distributed each of these two components is, the greater the total inequality ... [a] decisive factor is the relation between these two dimensions of inequality: to what extent do individuals with high income from labor also enjoy high income from capital? Technically speaking, this relation is a statistical correlation, and the greater the correlation, the greater the total inequality, all other things being equal” (Piketty & Goldhammer, 2014, p. 242). In the U.S. the correlation between the two dimensions has become so astonishing that “President Obama called economic inequality “the defining challenge of our time.” But while Americans acknowledge that the gap between the rich and poor has widened over the last decade, very few see it as a serious issue. Just five percent of Americans think that inequality is a major problem in need of attention” (Fitz,

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.

The film “Inequality for All” discusses the declining wage-earnings of the American middle class by former labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, Robert Reich. Reich presents economic information in such a complex way for everybody to understand and become engaged in the situation we are going through as a country. Reich was first introduced to Bill Clinton during a scholarship cruise in 1968. Reich became seasick on the cruise and Clinton was kind enough to bring Reich a cup of soup and that’s how it all began. After working under Clinton for several years, Reich became an economics professor in Berkley University.

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

The documentary film, “Inequality for All”, addresses the overall problems of income inequality within America. The documentary follows a former Labor secretary and all around American political economists, Robert Reich. Throughout the film Reich focusses on problems that many people already know about: the struggle that the middle class is facing, how the top 1% of society within America has seen a dramatic increase in income for themselves, education costs rising. His overall goal is to try and figure out what exactly Americas problem is within income inequality and how it can be fixed.

The following memorandum is a direct response to Robert Reich’s book Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future (2013). It includes an overview of Reich’s diagnosis of the economic issues facing America, as well as relevant analysis for consideration by the President and Congress. The following text considers a potential prescription for the issue of income equality and a prediction regarding the potential action or inaction of the United States government on these issues.

Part One The documentary Inequality for All covers the decreasing wage, earning capability, and upward mobility of the American middle class. Presented by former Labor Secretary under President Clinton, American economist, author, and Professor Robert Reich; the documentary argues that a strong middle class is vital to an overall health of the United States economy. Reich explains that economic inequality is bad for everyone in the United States, and in spite of the fact the economy has doubled in the last 30 years the gap between the middle and upper classes has grown increasingly larger in that time. Giving way to the 2007-2008 economic crisis in America, bringing us to a point of where social and social change is desperately needed.

In the documentary film "Inequality for All" Robert Reich (2013) clearly explains how this massive inequality in the distribution of wealth occurred and how it will affect the workers of his country. When the salaries become lower, a worker has to take on more debt. As college costs skyrocket, so there are few people to go to public universities, which ones are and should be free. The economy is not the only thing growing and the wealth gap, the richer are getting richer. At the same time, the economy will affect the political, damaging the rights of citizens and undermining democracy. More disappointing are Reich's lack of possible solutions and ways to turn this around. Finally, he hopes some of people are going to change the community.

“The United States of America is not a third world country. . .except perhaps income inequality where we rank worse than the Ivory Coast, worse than Cameroon” (Inequality for All). A clip of Jon Stewart and his satire was featured during the opening minutes of the documentary Inequality for All. Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor during the Clinton administration, is the centerpiece of the film, describing and explaining the growing income inequality in the United States and the effect it has on the economy. The peak years in high income concentration in the top one percent were 1928 and 2007; horrible economic collapses followed in the years 1929 and 2008 (Inequality for All). The power and control of the most wealthy, affluent people in the United States has skyrocketed during the past few decades, creating speculation of what caused the 2008 recession. The highly concentrated wealth in the United States is leading to a few people owning most of the United States, a decrease in political power among the middle and lower classes, and low money circulation that is negatively affecting the economy.

Individuals’ perceptions and relations towards each other can cause strife when comparing on terms of monetary worth and value. Americans dislike the division of income and wealth into the commonly categorized 99 percent of the majority population and one percent wealthy. Interestingly enough, though, despite the large increases in economic inequality since 1970, the majority of Americans do not support the redistribution of wealth (Ashok, Kuziemko, Washington). Notwithstanding, capitalism still draws criticisms that if more businesses were Christian-like in their practices, such divisions may not exist. This notion clearly demonstrates a misunderstanding in wealth distribution in America, as well as a misunderstanding in God’s perception of material inequality.

Reich agrees that some inequality is inevitable but his question is when does it start to become a problem and can we still have a working economy and democracy. According, to Reich, ‘’out of all developed nations the United States has the most unequal distribution of wealth’’. ‘’The richest 400 Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million, which is more than half the U.S population’’. Inequality started becoming a notable issue in the late 1970s to show that he includes a slide that shows in 1978 a typical male worker earned $48,302; while in 2010 that same worker earned $33,751. In the same years, the top 1% earned $393,682 and 1,101,089 respectively. Reich takes a look at U.C Berkeley where he teaches and how in the 1960s tuition

Inequalities exist an all aspects of life. The nature and result of such inequalities shapes our social as well as economic lives. As people progress through their educational life certain inequalities will result in different outcomes of schooling for different sets of people. “In post war Britain pupils from a working class background are constantly found to gain fewer academic qualifications, to be under represented in institutions of higher education and to end up in jobs offering little opportunity for social advancement'; (Brown 1987 p11). It is inequalities such as these that are present both in and out of school that will determine life chances of individuals. It is commonly accepted that education is the main

In “From Beyond Outrage”, Robert Reich wrote about the income inequality and the massive wealth gap and how it is eroding the middle class and threatening the fabric of American society. Reich was the Secretary of Labor under the Clinton administration, named one of the most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century, authored dozens of novels and a film, and is the current Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley as well as a Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. In “From Beyond Outrage”, Reich goes over some of the most troubling trends and argues that our current