Problems Faced By A Friend Of Mine 's Dad

During the 1920s, the middle-class in America embodied Eighner’s description of the “rat-race millions” who were constantly racing to get more material goods. From radios, to the newest appliances, to Henry Ford’s automobiles, the people in the middle-class wanted more and more money to purchase these items, so they turned to the stock market (Garraty 426). The materialistic greed within Americans led them to recklessly buy thousands of stocks in hopes securing more money, but the greed they had brought about the stock market crash which led America and the rest of the industrialized world straight into the Great Depression. The poverty and the suffering that came along with the economic depression showed how harmful greed and materialism can

Together, they made around $83,000 and had around $90,000 in assets which placed them solidly in the middle class. Twelve years later, Allison and David experienced setbacks but increased their income to about $125,000. Their financial assets quadrupled to a whopping $368,000 and saved up thousands of dollars for retirement. However, with the economy downsizing on the heels of the Great Recession and uneven job recovery heavily tilted toward low-wage jobs, David joined millions of other Americans in unemployment. Having spent half a year unemployed, David returned to work working at a significantly lower wage. Over the course of 12 years, David witnessed how work became less stable and more contingent for many Americans. The working experience illustrates a larger transformation in America’s employment landscape, away from middle-class jobs and jobs with significant benefits toward low-paying jobs with few benefits, accelerated by the Great Recession.

A person’s socioeconomic status is a way in which a group of people can be marginalized. Fluctuating in financial status, incorporating incongruities in the conveyance of riches, wage, and access to assets, influences everybody. Disparities in riches and personal satisfaction are expanding in the United States and internationally. Behavioral and sociology experts have the instruments important to complete and recognize methodologies that could reduce these abnormalities at both individual and societal levels. Low socioeconomic status (SES) and its corresponds, for example, lower training, neediness, and weakness, at last influence our general public overall. Everybody profits by an expanded spotlight on establishments of financial imbalances

The wealth gap, or wealth inequality, is known as the unequal distribution of assets within a population. The wealth gap in America between the lower and upper classes is rising exponentially. This imbalance within the distribution of wealth leaves those who aren’t as financially stable to struggle to achieve the same standard of education, and overall living necessities, such as housing, as those who’s wealth persistently grows. The rising wealth gap plaguing American society is bringing those of the lower and middle classes to a set disadvantage point compared to those who have an affluent amount of money. Although this inequality is contributing to an emergent opportunity gap, a solution can arise through new legislation concerning financial

Furthermore, the equality of opportunities as one of the foundations of the American dream turned into evident inequality. “The lion’s share of economic growth in American over the past thirty years has gone to a small, wealthy minority, to such an extent that it’s unclear whether the typical family has benefited at all from technological progress and the rising productivity it brings” (Krugman 586). Income inequality has been steadily growing since 2008 when the global financial crisis erupted. Moreover, the gap in prosperity between the group of Americans with high income and all the others had never been such extreme as it is now. Thus, not everyone has the opportunity to become wealthy through hard work. The increase in socioeconomic inequalities,

Long accused that the nation’s economic downfall was the result of the massive difference between the super-rich and everyone else. In Long’s opinion, this abundance of money among only the minority of people (wealthy bankers, entrepreneurs and businessmen) limited its availability for average citizens - these citizens were the people working in harsh conditions for minimal pay. [2]

This “middle-class nation” is struggling to support all those who live in its borders and the misconceptions about wealth are vastly overrated. Furthermore, the idea of wealth and stability is incorrect, and there is a very sharp contrast between the rich and poor in the country. As the richest twenty percent of American hold ninety percent of the total household of the total household wealth in the country, those at the bottom have managed very poorly and suffer to get through the days.

Becoming wealthy swiftly might be working wonders for some Americans, but for the rest of them, the broadening gap between the rich and the poor is making them lose faith in the “American Dream”; moreover, this gap forces the middle-class Americans to focus only on their careers which allow family values to lose its importance.

People simply couldn’t shop for the elaborate lifestyle’s they had begun to live. After the crash, investments were paralyzed. Fear gripped the wallets of the wealthy, just as joblessness and hopelessness gripped the day-to-day worker’s salvation. No one invested, and didn’t for many years, therefore the commoners shied away from even having bank accounts for depositing money; surely, they didn’t choose to invest long term. Since the majority of the nation would not invest(a major part of GDP), the nation’s GDP would not raise. Therefore, the standard of living stayed at its stagnant epitome of disappointment. Some turned back to hiding their money under the mattress or digging a hole in the backyard. They were not concerned with making interest-they were more concerned with not losing what they already had

Swanson’s article highlights the level of wealth to poverty in surprising numbers of which people are extremely unaware. To measure people’s wealth one has to take into account their savings and property minus the debt. The world's top percentile is wealthier than the rest of the globe combined, according to Credit Suisse. To be in the top 10 percent of wealth in the world, one needs to only have $68,800 in wealth. According to the Federal Reserve, the median American family had $81,000 in net worth in 2013 according to the Federal Reserve. These families are in the top 10 percent of the world and yet there is still 71% of the globe's population with less than $10,000 in wealth. This is only 3% of the global wealth. Also, in 2015 according

“We miss opportunities because of wrong investment. This leads to emptiness (in our life, mind, and soul). Then it leads to consequence, which leads to excuses. We make excuses and give in to circumstance, which empowers our situation and disempowers us” (Gilligan, 2016)! Instead there must be a diligent effort to

In this day and age, the most blunt yet truthful way to get ahead in life is to ride into influence on a wave of the green. Money is the key to success when success is measured in designer jeans and Prada bags. Even those born into a life of wealth and fortune don’t achieve anything in life without either the ambition to get up off their specially designed leather furniture and earn enough to live on their own, free of their parents. Economics has always had the upper hand in creating the current idea of the American Dream. Especially today, when our ideal lives is to be able to buy, buy, buy without having to worry about not being able to pay the

High interest may also be the most universal trap for low-wage workers. From research, poor people and investment bankers seem to have one thing in common: they both spend considerable amounts of energy thinking about money. (Shipler, 2004). With that, they have to juggle, predict, and plan, and every decision involves a lengthy step-by-step process.

The era of volatility has created a shift from America being the middle-class society to simply rich or poor (Sachs, 2011). A gap this large has not been experienced since the 1920’s (Sachs). “The top 1% of households takes almost a quarter of all household income” but an economy this top heavy will not be able to succeed (Sachs, 2011, p. 30). The working classes are struggling with housing, wage, and employment issues. Rich individuals are ignoring these troubles, shipping their business operations out of the country, thus furthering the downward spiral of the economy (Sachs). To make matters worse, this has become in a large part a political issue, because the rich can influence candidates with funding, where the poor and working

Most adults in my family agreed that it was necessary to remind the younger generations how privileged their life was and to always appreciate what they had. So naturally, money was rarely a concern for me and had absolutely no value on my self worth. Though little did I know, or realize how hard my parents worked to make life that comfortable for my siblings and I. This being said, we found it rather difficult to understand why our Father insisted on changing jobs constantly, which seemed to be more trouble than it was worth, just to increase his income. Until recently, we didn’t understand. Discovering our Father’s pursuit for wealth has put more than a mental and emotional strain on his and my Mother’s relationship, it has greatly affected the relationship between him and his children, as well as grandchildren.