Income Inequality Is A Tough Policy Issue

Everywhere you look at the United States you can find economic stratification. From the kind of vehicle you drive, to the kind of house you live in, to the kind of restaurants you eat at the most you will find economic stratification. Some might ask, does any of that truly matter today? Yes, unfortunately, it does. An important goal for most people is what’s referred to as The American Dream. Whether it is to attend a good college, get a respectable job, purchase the perfect house, and have a small family or maybe just to start your own business; that dream starts with wealth. People with more money will have an easier time with achieving the dream than a lower income person would. With wealth comes power and prestige as well. People with more money have better life chances because they can afford better healthcare, education, healthier food, and safer neighborhoods just to name a few things.

Income Inequality in America is a problem that’s been going on for decades, and many feel that it hardly exists, the many people that feel that way are highly uneducated, and seem to not really care about this tremendous problem that in one’s eyes really has no end in the near future, in fact it has been gradually rising and one feels that it’s just not fair. 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: 1. Upper Class, 2. Upper Middle Class, 3. Middle Class, 4. Working Class, 5. Poor.

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.

This first lecture gave us a close look into the unequal share of wealth and the factors that determine the wealth of individuals in the American society. One of the first factors that affect immensely the inequality in America is the obsessiveness of wanting to classify people and make them mark a box for their gender, race and class. Where men and whites have more privileges than any other person and are not only paid higher, but would most likely spend less time in prison for committing the same crime as an African American. The United states is so unequal that the top 1% of the population has 38.1% of the wealth and the bottom 40% which is a little less than half of the people living in America only have 0.2% of the wealth. And as if that statistic alone was not scary enough, we learn in this

In “Income Inequality: The Public and the Partisan Divide,” Blendon and Benson explain the issue of income inequality and the need to address it. The importance of explaining this problem provides insight for the people who are not educated about the topic, hopefully triggering more public awareness. Blendon and Benson support their opinion by discussing that the two major political parties in the U.S. agree that income inequality is a problem that must be recognized, but cannot come up with a synopsis on how to take care of it. Also, they describe how different perspectives cause different ideas for fixing the issue. Blendon and Benson explain how partisan views towards the role of government are one of the perspectives towards how the income

Since the beginning of human history there has always been a power structure; who is to be on top and who is to be in the bottom. So, it comes to no surprise that America has a growing gap between the wealthy and everyone else. The United States is known as a melting pot and a country full of opportunities for all but it is also the place where upper class makes millions in an hour and the lower class only makes minimum wage. United States thrives on promoting everyone is created and treated equally but that happens not to be the case. Polls after polls shows a huge percentage of Americans biggest concern is the income inequality, the rich continue to get richer and the poor continue to get poorer, that it’s not being tribute equally among race and gender. Wealth and income inequality has grown since 1920s like never before and the question lays what is the cause and how can it be fixed.

In the United States, there is a huge income disparity between the richest ten percent, and bottom ninety percent. The American tax, and political system favors the top 10% while neglecting the middle and working classes, suppressing living wages and exporting jobs overseas. A society where working 40 hours a week will not put food on the table. If the average hardworking American is working endless hours to try and support their families which is just slightly above the poverty line, while groups of 400 individuals, who are heads of the top 500 companies and financial institutions, who if even work, is less than 108 days a year, and are proud owners of 50% of U. S’s entire wealth. This is the reality of the United

At the root of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ highly touted (and shouted) policies, from free college to an increase in the minimum wage, is the issue of inequality in America. Perhaps it’s no surprise that Sanders has seen great success on his message of fixing inequality in the United States, the gap between the wealthy and poor has been growing at an alarming rate. The focus tends to be on income inequality rather than wealth inequality. According to Google Trends, searches for “Income Inequality” significantly outnumber searches for “Wealth Inequality”, and have consistently done so since 2004 (Web Search Interests). Despite this, wealth inequality is a far greater problem than income inequality. Income inequality

Like many working Americans, I never took the time to think about how income inequality affected us and how immense it has become. The problem with income inequality is its rapid increase, and the lack of effort to close that gap between the rich and the poor. According to Robert Franks in “Income Inequality: Too Big to Ignore”, income growth has always remained at the top 1 percent for instance, in 1976 it was 8.9 percent and by 2007 it rose to 23.5 percent (581). Low wages and high unemployment rates have contributed to the income gap. The question is what can the government do to help reduce the problem? If we think about it, there have always been plenty of obstacles, enabling us to achieve the American dream but one should never give up hope.

“We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” This is a compelling quote spoken by Louis Brandeis, who was U.S. Supreme Court Justice and lived from 1856 to 1941. His words illustrate the ever-growing issue of inequality that has existed in this country for many years. Being aware of and understanding the changing rates of income inequality in the U.S throughout history is crucial in order to progress by making positive changes in today’s society.

Capitalism has been the central force behind the growth of the United States’ progressive economy. Within such advanced economic system the chances of economic disparity are significantly high. In fact, over the past three decades there has being a steady increase in unequal wealth distribution among the economic classes. To sustain the current unequal wealth distribution among the classes of the American population, there are numerous factors that influence and shape this trend. For some members of the population it is alarmingly disturbing to know that recent statistics have shown that, “In the US [alone] the wealthiest 1% of its population owns more than the bottom 95 %” (Gutman). As for the difference in economic wealth, it resulted

One of the social issues concerning power, status, and class in American society today is income inequality. The income gap between the social classes has increased drastically throughout the last few decades, creating a significant gap between the wealthy and the poor. This gap has become so large that the middle class has nearly diminished, creating a social class comprised of the rich and the poor. The significant gap between the two social classes is unhealthy for the economy because it provides too much power in the hands of those with high social status.

Even with the pretense of the United States as a paradigm of justice, one can see that the top 20% of income holders controls 45.8% of income in comparison to the 5.4% of income controlled by the lowest 20%. Though these numbers represent much more inequality than many would expect of the US,

Inequality has been an issue in the United States for quite a long time, it is believed to be something that occurs naturally in our society. However, in the last few decades income inequality has grown at extraordinary rates which have sparked new questions about whether or not it occurs naturally or for exactly what reasons are American families living in such differing environments. The trend doesn’t only keep expanding but it shows no sign of stopping. Such high levels of inequality threaten the norms of social justice. With the top 1 percent now owning more wealth than ever, the question is, how can we stop the fast-growing gap that separates the poor from the wealthy? While some people might argue that income inequality is an inevitable issue, taking certain measures, such as fixing the broken tax system, raising the minimum wage, and making college more affordable can help reduce it while boosting economic growth.

Without a doubt, our society has mercilessly segregate the ‘elite’ from the ‘inferior.’ There are two groups of people that contribute to the economy, the wildly rich and elite one percent and the other group is everyone else or the inferior majority. There is no longer a gap between these two group, but rather an ever-growing abyss. This injustice is known as the income inequality and many factors in our plagued society contribute to the growth of this issue. At birth, each human being is born with access to different resources and because of this, most Americans need to work much harder to simply make ends meet. Income inequality is the result of the discrepancies and differences between people’s education, wealth, personal ability, monopoly, and discrimination.