Income Inequality

Income inequality is on the rise and it is evident in most cities throughout the United States. There are individuals with six to seven figure incomes and then there are individuals whose income is just enough to get by. The middle class is not as prominent as the upper and lower class. This should be the other way around. There should not be so many cities with very wealthy neighborhoods right next door to low class, rundown neighborhoods, with little middle class households. Digging deeper, 47.6% of the money in the United States belongs to individuals that receive $98,200 or more (“Distribution of U.S. family income”, 101). The middle class should be much more noticeable with the upper and lower

In an economic sense, income distribution refers to how wages and salaries are split among a society of people. The top earners in a society are naturally considered to be the richest, whereas the lowest earners are the poorest. In any society, such differentiation in earnings commonly creates class systems based on yearly income. This structure is often measured by labeling people as lower class, middle class, or upper class depending on yearly earnings even though there can be a large difference in the top and bottom incomes of a class. Concerns about the inequality of the distribution of income in any society are often brought about when individuals believe that one income class is earning too large or too little of a percentage of the total income. In the United States however, certain policies and programs are in place to combat criticism against the fairness of income distribution. In addition to these policies and programs, the United States was founded on the belief that any individual, regardless of social class or birth status, should be as successful or unsuccessful as they wish depending on their ability to capitalize on opportunities presented to them throughout their life. Commonly known as “The American Dream,” this notion towards freely being able to create one’s own wealth and worth can be seen throughout the history of the United States and is a major factor that guided America to become one of the world’s economic super powers. After recognizing a historic

In Income Inequality: Too Big to Ignore, Robert H. Frank paints a picture to the reader about the struggles of pier pressure. For example: an upper-classmen chooses to buy a big house and fancy clothing. This acts as a “frame of reference” to the changes and norms of the society. If he spends money on something nice, a middle-classmen will then go and decide to do the same thing, and then a lower-classmen…all the way down the social hierarchy. This is what he calls an “expenditure cascade.” Robert relates this with a person’s downfalls, which can be traced due to lower income inequality. Income inequality basically means that in a given quantity, the dispersion of income is underlined by the gap between individuals and or households with

In any given population, there is a difference between what people within the population earn. The uneven distribution of income in any given population is income inequality. In order for there to be income, there has to be several sources of income. These sources of income may be combinational or independent per person receiving the income. Income may result from wages, rent, bank account interests, salaries or even profits made in business transactions ( Stiglitz, 2012).

The distribution of income in the United States, is a growing controversy. Far left and far right groups have distinctly differing opinions on income inequality and whether it is beneficial or detrimental to the economic growth of the nation. Mainstream politics, however, tend to be relatively devoid of discussion about the extreme wealth gap. The rising levels, factors, and opinions of income inequality as well as methods of income redistribution will be discussed.

Corporations and businesses should take responsibility in devising multiple solutions that help society as a whole. In Joseph Stiglitz’s essay “Rent Seeking and the Making of an Unequal Society” shows the corruption of wealth inequality in society. While, in Ethan Watters’ essay “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan” shows the corruption of Western pharmaceutical companies shaping culture to market depression in Japan. [Drug marketing is a big problem in today’s society since big firms neglect their obligation to share the profits with others in society. Both Watters and Stiglitz offer objections to the economic markets in America as unjust due to market competition, false marketing techniques, opposition to cultural or income differences,

Income inequality has been a common problem among people in the United States. A prime example of a group facing income inequality is the middle class. The middle class has served as the backbone to a working economy for decades. Though, lately, the middle class is facing a downward spiral: it is slowly shrinking in number. Because the Middle class will never truly be eliminated, solutions can be limited; however the best thing to do is to try to strengthen this weak link. As Richard Nixon said in his Address to the Nation, we are a “working class” as a whole, we should be using that backbone to uphold our nation. The middle class does so much in our economy that the fall of this keystone could possibly cause a complete domino effect in the

Hence it is clear, income inequality shook middle class citizens unpleasantly. To improve upon the issues middle class Americans suffering, there needs to be necessary changes to make it possible. However, these changes will doubly happen anytime soon. Possible solution to combat income inequality affecting middle class are: strengthen the unions, raise minimum wage, reduce debt burden for college students, improving education system, modifying tax codes, corporate or big business tax going to communities and public facilities, middle class income should be raised to fit with the inflation or cost of living, government should intervene with deregulation policies if a threat to public’s interest, and modify health care system. These are some

Poverty and income inequality is an enormous obstacle in which certain Americans may face daily. Poverty refers to economic or income deprivation (Iceland 2006). Some may refer to poverty as having material hardships, or having one’s income and assets compared against a standard. If an individual’s income falls below the standard, they’re considered “poor” (Newman and O’Brien 2011). Poverty may be currently measured in two common ways, either through an absolute measure or relative. The poverty measure I am proposing would be looking at “family/couple/household” as the unit of analysis, cost of food, childcare, housing, and transportation as scale of resources, and the threshold will be using a more relative dimensional perspective.

Income inequality has been a major concern around the world, and it mainly links to how economic metrics are distributed among individuals in a country. Economists generally categorise these metrics in wealth, income and consumption. Wilkinson and Picket (2009) showed in their studies that inequality has drawbacks that lead to social problems. This is because income inequality and wealth concentration can hinder or delay long term growth. In 2011, International Monetary Fund economists showed that less income inequality increased the duration of countries’ economic growth spells more than free trade, low government corruption, foreign investment or low foreign debt (Berg and Ostry, 2011).

Economic and income equality have risen significantly in the United States over the years. In 2013, the top 1% accounted for roughly 20% of America’s income, before taxes. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the average income of the top 1% of America’s population has “grown by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007,” even after taxes. In stark contrast, the middle class has experienced growth of about 40 to 60% and the lowest income population has only experienced growth of about 18%. This resulted in the richest households nearly tripling their share of the country’s income while the majority struggled to keep up.

I think that wealth and income inequality give off more social problems and both lead to more negative issues than positive. Crime can tend to occur because of money and that often involves a wealthy person as well as a lower class person. I also think that income inequality can correlate with life expectancy. The rich may live longer because they have more money and therefor are able to afford better health care than the poor. It is crazy to think that some people have too much money than they know what to do with while others don’t know when their next meal is. We live in a vicious cycle where the richer can get richer because of investments and the poor struggle to find jobs because they don’t have the money to buy a car to be able to go

Income inequality has been a major issue in American history. There are many different factors that contribute to inequality. These include education, wealth, discrimination, ability, and monopoly power.

I found a lot of new information throughout the entirety of the film. For example, the fact that many of the people who live on Park Avenue, like Stephen Schwarzman and David Koch, contributed large amounts of money to politicians in order to lobby for their own opinions. This is important because it opened my eyes to the possibility of corruption in our government. In addition, the film highlighted that people in the capitalist class are likely to abuse their money and use it for rather useless things. For example, Charles Schumer spends thousands of dollars every Christmas to buy, ship, and decorate 60 Christmas trees, one for each room of his house. Also, John Thain was shown spending millions to renovate his office during the recession

Household income inequality has increased in a large majority of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The widening gap between the lower middle class, poor households, and especially the retired compared to the rest of society has become a major concern for policy makers and governments. An analysis of the social impact of the 2008 economic crisis by the OECD (2009) showed that pensioners had been largely spared from benefit cuts and sometimes their public pension benefits increased as part of economic stimulus programmes.