Income Inequality From A Global Perspective

It is a commonly accepted that inequality is increasing throughout the globe, with startling statistics such as the recent Oxfam report indicating that the richest 85 people in the world own more wealth than the poorest 3.5 billion people(Oxfam Australia Media, 2014). Inequality is thought of as disparities or gaps, such as the distance between a low income and a high income household, or the ratio of their incomes (Divided We Stand, 2011). Domestic inequality refers to inequality within a country and

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

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.

Income Inequality is a major problem that has been going on in America for decades. Many people feel that it barely exists today, but those people are very uneducated and don’t really care about the huge problem in front of them the many people that feel that way are highly uneducated, and seem to not really care about which has been gradually increasing instead of decreasing. Unfortunately, there’s not much that can be done, only of course if the poor class of people decide to actually educate themselves and get a higher education. One says poor class, simply because that’s how they’re classified. There are five types of levels that Americans are classified as, and they are: Upper Class, Upper Middle Class, Middle Class, Working Class, Poor. The highest percentage of Americans fall in the Poor department, and it has been that way for decades, and will continue to be that way for decades to come.

Amongst all of the presidential candidates of the 2016 race, one in particular stands above the rest. Bernie Sanders, running as a democrat, holds the highest capability to better the nation amongst all other candidates.

Income inequality is increasingly becoming a significant concern for many countries around the world. The income difference between the highly-educated, skilled, wealthy class and the poor, low to mid-skilled workers is growing larger and larger. In fact, the incomes of the rich are increasing significantly, while the low skilled workers’ incomes have been declining (The Economist, “Wealth Without Workers”). According to The Economist, real median wages have been decreasing since 2000 in half of the member countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In the United States, there was a 4% increase from 1980 to 2012 in the share of national income that was distributed to the top 0.01% (The Economist, “True Progressivism”). Canada is facing a similar problem of rising inequality.

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).

In the documentary “Inequality for All” examines widening income inequality in the United States. It talk about the rich took over the Federal Reserve Bank and they change the rules. In 1971, President Ronald Reagan took America off the gold standard. Once he did that Federal Reserve and the treasury was allow to print uncontrollable in the world. The crisis today is U.S dollar value is going down. Residual income is income that continues to be generated after the initial effort has been expended. See most Americans work an hour to get pay an hour. If they work an hour then they a get pay an hour. But if they do not work an hour then they do not get pay. Wealthy know that is a prison. You cannot get rich by exchanging time for money. You must

Imagine that the U.S economy is a group of ten people making a cake. Despite the fact that everyone contributed, one person would take 90% of the cake. The other nine would be left to fight over the renaming 10%. In what universe would this be a fair situation.

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.

The current widening income inequality is due to the substantial income disparity between the top and bottom workers in the U.S. economy. General decline in wage endangered the standard of living for low income family as they struggle with a tightened budget. In order to battle income inequality, policy makers must raise the income of the working poor by expanding tax credit program and increase its effectiveness through major modification.

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.

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).

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.

The subtitle to The Haves and the Have-Nots by Milanovic reads: “A Brief and Idiosyncratic History of Global Inequality.” This is a fairly accurate description, considering that Milanovic briefly but effectively tackles a variety of economic topics relating to global inequality over time. Milanovic does a phenomenal job of putting things in perspective for someone who doesn’t have a background in economics. He has a prestigious record as an economist at various Universities and positions, including being the lead economist at the World Bank Research Department for over 20 years and writing various articles about income distribution and the effects of globalization.