The American Capitalist System: Unfair Economic Distribution

“A Harvard businessman interviewed 5,000 Americans on how they thought wealth in the United States was distributed” (Wealth Inequality video). They assumed that the wealth was distributed a little unfairly, with the top 20% owning most of the wealth in a low but even decline into poverty. Then he asked them what they thought would be the ideal distribution of wealth, 92% of them (at least 9/10) said that they thought an “ideal” distribution had the top 20% barely distinguishable from the middle class with the bottom percent not too worse off than the bottom 20% of the middle class. The reality of how wealth in the U.S. is budgeted looks something a like this: the top 20% owning well of half of all the nation’s wealth, the middle class is now as worse off as what citizens thought the bottom 20%

In today’s capitalist economy, where economic transactions and business in general is centered on self-interest, there is a natural tendency for some people to make more than others. That is the basis for the “American Dream,” where people, if they worked hard, could make money proportional to their effort. However, what happens when this natural occurrence grows disproportional in its allocation of wealth within a society? The resulting issue becomes income inequality. Where a small portion of the population, own the majority of the wealth and the majority of the population own only a fraction of what the rich own. This prominent issue has always been the subject of social tension

In a research of Harvard professor 5000 people in America have opinion in how they think about the actual distribution of wealth in the U.S. and the 92 percent choose the ideal would be 20 percent and 20 percent the middle class. However, the reality is very far from it. “The poorest are not even registered, they are on the package change and the middle class is barely distinguished from the poor, even the rich between the 10 % and 20 % are worst off, only the top 10 % are better off. Only the one percent gets ten time higher and 40 % all the nation wealth. The bottom 80 % 8 out 10 people only has 7 % between them.1 % makes a quarter of the national income today”(you tube, 2015). All of this data reflex one of the truly perspectives in economy of the U.S. Not only people with low wages are the most affected, but also those who have good jobs and

There is no doubt that wealth inequality in America has been escalating quickly; the portion of total income earned by the top one percent has doubled since the beginning of the 1970’s. The wealthy are the main beneficiaries

This topic is incredibly relevant to today’s society in America, because that exact thing is happening all around us. Everything caters to the top one percent. This is being protested by the ninety-nine percent movement and more specifically, a former Democratic presidential primary candidate by the name of Bernie Sanders. Despite these protesters, America is slowly becoming a case of extreme

Wealth in america is only reserved for the top 1%. Even out of those who live in the

A good friend of mine recently recommended me to watch a documentary called “The One Percent.” I do not usually watch documentaries unless I am gaining some type of knowledge out of the information presented. Unsure of what it was about and what I was going to get out of it, I turned on NetFlix and proceeded to watch the film. I soon came to realize I was enamored by this film, “The One Percent,” and it remains one of my favorite documentaries of all time. The documentary deals with the disparity between the wealthy elite and the

The gap between the rich and poor in the United States is constantly growing, due to the fact that minimum wage is low for the poor but not for the rich. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. There is no gray area in this situation. According to A Project of The Institute for Policy Studies, “The top 0.1 percent is taking in over 184 times the income of the bottom 90 percent.” There

In Joseph Stiglitz, article Vanity Fairs’ The hive. I will be talking about America and the wealth using three quotes from the Article Of the 1%, By the 1%, For the 1%. Stiglitz talks about how many Americans take home how much money America has and what percentage of the Americans that tale home this money. The most important parts in this article are income inequality, one percent of Americans, and how the one percent of these Americans has more belongings that are enjoyable.

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

In the essay, “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%” by Joseph E. Stiglitz, Stiglitz criticizes the wealthy, and how the economy protects them. The government has reduced taxes for those wealthy people, but not working Americans that are poor. The government is giving more money to the wealthy, while taking opportunities from the less-educated. Everyone in America is not equal in society. America has went from a society that everyone worked hard to earn money to an economy that is predictable. The rich know they will stay rich and their legacy will continue. The poor knows their hard working and still struggling legacy will continue. Many people that aren’t rich depend on the government for certain things, but rich people have the money to pay

In the article “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%” Joseph Stiglitz, a noble prize winning economist, argues that the upper 1% controls about 40% of all wealth in America. This top 1% has taken about a quarter of all income in America, and has seen their income rise about 18% in the past decade. This has made the inequality between classes in the US expand. Eventually, this inequality gap will even hurt the top 1%, because the other 99% will either fight for a bigger piece or just stop working all together. The top 1% can buy anything they need, but their fate realizes on the other 99% to work hard and not fight back. If the 99% stopped working, there would be a simple way to gain back money… that would be to raise taxes on the rich. However, the rich get rich by capital gains, which have a low tax policy. So overall, the upper percent can eventually learn, but a majority of the time it is too little too late.

The uneven distribution of wealth started when more and more of the nation's wealth found its way into the pocketbooks of those who were already wealthy. This meant that other Americans were earning even less. Important industries during this time were also failing miserably, including coal mining, farming and textiles. As Americans had fewer and fewer dollars to purchase items, the demand for products and services fell.

When I was watching the documentary, “The One Percent” I learned that people who are in the one percent have a different lifestyle compared to me and even the people who are under the one percent. They are many fundamental differences between me and the group of people who belong in the one percent. They have much more privileges than I do. From the documentary, I sensed that people who belong in the one percent do not have much empathy towards other social classes. They don’t seem to have a sense of struggle in their life. On the contrary, I have lived in a second world country, the Philippines, where poverty is seen everywhere: I was also a victim of what lies beneath the surface. The rest of the one percent does not live like my neighbors

According to Adams, M., Readings for diversity and social justice (Third ed.) pg 156, “the wealthiest 1 percent of the American population holds 34 percent of the total national wealth. Approximately 183,000 Americans, or ¾ of 1 percent of the adult population, earn more than $1 million dollars annually. The middle class in the United States holds a very small share of the nation’s wealth. Nearly 37 million Americans lived in unrelenting poverty”.