Research Paper On Income Inequality

In the United States, high standard of living is not equally shared with in the Americans. The 1970s and 1990s was period where economic inequality began to grow. Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor at UC Berkeley has been doing a research for the U.S. income inequality. He states that there has been an increase since the 1970s, and has reached levels that have not been seen since 1928. “In 1928, the top 1% of families received 23.9% of all pretax income, while the bottom 90% received 50.7%. But the Depression and World War II dramatically reshaped the nation’s income distribution, by 1944 the top 1%’s share was down to 11.3%, while the bottom 90% were receiving 67.5%, levels that would remain more or less constant for the next three decades. But starting in the mid- to late 1970s, the uppermost percent income share began rising dramatically, while that of the bottom 90% started to fall.”(DeSilver) Ever since then, economic inequality continues to increase, especially in the last three decades.

Income inequality is a huge problem in the United States. We have a higher income inequality than any other country. For most of recorded history, men tended to have higher wage than women which could reflect and underpin the gender roles that men were more highly valued socially and as well as economically. Since it becomes a problem, it is necessary to understand why that occurs and what can be the solution of it. In the present paper, the wage gap between gender in the U.S. society would be investigated and the facts behind would be discussed in depth.

Income inequality has steadily risen throughout time in the United States. The article which I read was written by Jeff Guo of the Washington post and explained how when the United states was colonizing as a nation they were one of the most egalitarian places in the world to one of the least in present time. When the colonies began, there was ample land and wages that kept the classes close together, but as time moved forward a large inequality through income arose and created the issues that are present today. In the article he speaks how the United States during the times when their industrial power was rising most Americans were beginning to become much more

Income inequality in the United States has risen significantly. Today, Income inequality is at its’ widest point since the 1970s (CSNBC). Income inequality refers to the extent to which income is distributed in an uneven manner among a population (website).

The author touches on an important issue that affects the United States, which is income inequality between different sexes and occupations. The researcher asks an interesting research question that affects a high population in the United States. There have been several debates on income inequality, and it is essential to know the contribution of government and state policies to this problem. The increase in the disparity started in the mid-1970s. It is also important to know the reason for the inequalities between different states. This makes it easier to identify and change policies that contribute to income inequality. The research question is situated properly in the literature. The literature first explains the problem of 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.

Before the 1970s, the incomes of Americans were close to equal. However, incomes have drastically changed since then. Now there is a great difference in the distribution of money to employees, this is income inequality. The

Income inequality is assessed by using “Gini coefficient” (Gini, 1909) and it is one of the commonly used measurement tools across the globe. The Gini coefficient is normally explained by using Lorenz curve where the income of individuals are arranged from the lowest income level to the highest income level (Lorenz, 1905). A Gini coefficient with zero means perfect equality, whistle one or 100 percent means maximum inequality (Rogerson, 2013) . Based on income inequality measurement tool; Gini coefficient, Wilkins (2014a) suggests that there was a decline in Gini coefficient between 1994 -1995 and 1996-1997 by showing an inequality in Australian household income. On the other hand, between 2003-2004 and 2007-2008, the Gini coefficient increased

Inequality For All discussed how the United States has the most uneven distribution of income. The peak year that has the greatest income concentration is between 1928 through 2007. Middle class people are the ones who are struggling the most. An interesting fact that I didn’t know was that the average American worker in 1978 was earning around $48,302; whereas, the average person in the top 1% was earning $393,682. The economy today compared to the year 1978 has drastically decreased. In 2010 the typical American worker was earning $33,751, which means that the gross income was less than then before. However, while the middle class workers suffered, the top 1% was earning twice as much. Instead of the United States having an equal distribution

In the United States, income inequality, or the gap between rich people and everyone else, has been rising noticeably since the middle of the 20th century. Matters of inequality appear very significant issues that play a large role in the public discourse the last thirty years. As the discussion works up, it’s important to recognize some essential details about how income inequality is considered. For instance, the difference in average household incomes between whites and blacks, the recession of the year 2008 that hit the state although the gap between rich and poor wasn’t much different than it is now, the lack of adjustment for locality and the huge differences in cost depending on where you live, and the low and slow economy. In our everyday

Income inequality is been a problem in this country for awhile now. Though the median household income has risen about thirty percent the top one percent has skyrocketed nearly two-hundred percent. Though unemployment is falling the and the distribution of income is rising. Even President Obama said economic inequality is the defining challenge of our time.

Income inequality have been going up nonstop up for quite some time, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon. While that difference keeps increasing, it is important to ask ourselves, is it possible that a big difference on income could affect Social Security in the US? And if so, what kind of response should the government have to be able to uphold its promise to pay its citizens back the money they put in over the year, and let The Social Security Administration play the role that was originally intended for, a program that promotes income stability in the country. And lastly, should we, the citizens, look into and alternative retirement plan?

Gini Coefficient is measure of inequality on a scale of zero and one, if the score is “0” it implies all population has the same income which means every household has the same income, if the score is “1” is the opposite, where everyone has unequal income and is at perfect inequality. If only one household has all the income then the score would be “1”, which refers to complete inequality.

Social Inequalities is when certain groups of individuals have many unequal opportunities that limits peoples position in societies status groups. Whether that inequality be something that goes noticed or unnoticed these all have effects on many peoples lives, and longer lasting effects on our society. Some of the things that have been discussed in both class and on the news lately have been race inequalities, class inequalities, and lastly gender inequalities.

Income inequality has reached a level of instability which has not been seen since the years leading up to the Great Depression. Income inequality refers to the difference of real income received by the varying socio-economic classes within an economy. There is no better example of this then the Great Depression in which greed sent twenty-five percent of the population into unemployment. Inequality.org defines income as “…the revenue streams from wages, salaries, interest on a savings account, dividends from shares of stock, rent, and profits from selling something for more than you paid for it.” As indicated in Figure 1 and discussed by Marcie Gardner and David Abraham in “Income Inequality”, the median U.S. household income in 2012 totaled $51,017. It wasn’t until The Great Recession (2007-2009) that the economy saw similar inequality as depicted during The Great Depression. Incomes were hit hard across the board. Median household income declined 8.1 percent between 2007 and 2012 (See Appendix A – Figure 1).