The Causes Of Income Inequality In The United States

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 has been a progressively growing issue in the United States, even today. The problem dates back all the way to the Great Depression, although some researchers tend to think that it is older than that. The difference between the wealth of higher-income families and lower-income families has become a great issue. Many people, including our government, think that they know how they can fix it. They have tried time and time again to come up with solutions, yet we are still facing the same obstacle that we were almost one hundred years ago. The effects that this dilemma is setting forth for our United States’ economy, environment, and even our education is repulsing.

The highest earning fifth of U.S. families earned 59.1% of all income, while the richest earned 88.9% of all wealth. A big gap between the rich and poor is often associated with low social mobility, which contradicts the American ideal of equal opportunity. Levels of income inequality are higher than they have been in almost a century, the top one percent has a share of the national income of over 20 percent (Wilhelm). There are a variety of factors that influence income inequality, a few of which will be discussed in this paper. Rising income inequality is caused by differences in life expectancy, rapidly increases in the incomes of the top 5 percent, social trends, and shifts in the global economy.

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 has affected American citizens ever since the American Dream came to existence. The American Dream is centered around the concept of working hard and earning enough money to support a family, own a home, send children to college, and invest for retirement. Economic gains in income are one of the only possible ways to achieve enough wealth to fulfill the dream. Unfortunately, many people cannot achieve this dream due to low income. Income inequality refers to the uneven distribution of income and wealth between the social classes of American citizens. The United States has often experienced a rise in inequality as the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, increasing the unstable gap between the two classes. The

One of the main inequality issues in America is income distribution. Income is not distributed equally among social classes resulting in unequal amount of pay and earned income. US income rose from 1970s to 2007. People in the 70th percentile noticed their income declined while anyone above 70th percentile has an increasing income. People who were placed at the 10th percentile discovered their income start to plateau from 2001-2007. They did however, notice they had a bump in income resulting from a raise in minimum wage, but most states had a decrease in income from 2005-2007. Anyone at the 90th percentile or above noticed a raise in income. There was about a five times difference from workers at the 10th percentile to the 90th percentile. There was also an increase in

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.

The history of income inequality in the United States has affected the lives of many citizens. The problem with inequality has evolved over time and has influenced previous public administration policies in the U.S.

Today, our economy is among the largest and strongest in the world, yet the worry of growing income inequality lies beneath. Most economists agree that income inequality has grown to be more and more unequal in recent years. Changes in society have also contributed to this. While the causes of this growth of income inequality are uncertain, there are many obvious factors such as deteriorating quality of jobs, corporate

Income inequality has affected American citizens ever since the American Dream came to existence. The American Dream is centered around the concept of working hard and earning enough money to support a family, own a home, send children to college, and invest for retirement. Economic gains in income are one of the only possible ways to achieve enough wealth to fulfill the dream. Unfortunately, many people cannot achieve this dream due to low income. Income inequality refers to the uneven distribution of income and wealth between the social classes of American citizens. The United States has often experienced a rise in inequality as the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, increasing the unstable gap between the two classes. UC

Income inequality is best described as the uneven distribution of income between social classes. In America over the past centuries, income inequality has become a rising issue affecting lower-class workers the most. In the past, Americans had the opportunity to start at an entry level job and work their way up to a higher paying position, but it is not as easy today to do this. Income inequality is a factor that Americans should address as it is not going away and the inequality gap is only becoming greater.

Inequality is one of the main focuses of societal conversations in today’s world, which is unsurprising when the results of inequality exist blatantly in every city in America. Inequality demands the attention of many, including Paul Krugman and David Leonhardt. Each of these authors detailed their ideas regarding inequality in their articles, “Confronting inequality,” and “Inequality has been going on forever…. But that doesn’t make it inevitable,” respectively. The authors in their articles discuss the causes and effects of inequality, each citing different examples and studies to emphasize their points, as well as propose different methods to reduce it nationwide.

Economic inequality is directly linked with the unequal or highly wide gaps in the income levels of different groups. The reason why economic inequality is seen as a threat, regardless of its presence in big numbers, is because it leads to deterioration of the well-being and solidarity of several macro-economic factors. When there is unavailability of equal opportunities for different ethnic groups residing in a country, then economic inequality would keep on ascending. The inequality of income and financial status is sometimes associated with the social problems which are deep rooted within the societies from past. Even after hundreds of laws, acts and welfare programs, the situations stay more or less same. It shows that the efforts required to eliminate the poverty and narrowing income gaps are not honest and are initiated only on temporary basis. It is not possible to completely wipe away the element of economic inequality from any society but the mission should be to provide as much assistance required as possible to keep the economy smooth and running without pushing for any depressing outcomes.

Back in the time of primitive communities when life was simple and all food and goods were shared among one another, inequality, a now very relevant and understood topic, was virtually unheard of. Inequality, or the unequal distribution of valued goods and opportunities, has since gone up and down as big changes have been made in the way our society functions. America, particularly in the last two decades, has skyrocketed in terms of inequality, both in comparison with its former self and in comparison to other rich, democratic countries. While America has some of the richest people it has ever seen, it also has a shocking amount of people who live in poverty. The United States has between one-third to two times more inequality than similar countries, which many people do not realize because Americans tend to think that America is the best country in all aspects of the word, which is actually not true at all. There are several factors that contribute to the increase in economic equality over the last two decades including, but not limited to: technology, the decline of manufacturing and globalization, and government policies.

There are three factors that contribute to income inequality: technology, trade, and politics. Starting back in 1918, the rich took in a very large portion of the total income of the United States, decreasing growth and median wages, and in 1928, the economy peaked, before crashing (Reich 5). During the Great Prosperity, the nation grew fast, increasing median wages, which allowed the middle class to consume more. This created more jobs and increased demand. Then, in the 1970’s, the middle class stopped growing when the wages dropped due to an advance in technology, where computers and machines started taking American jobs and companies expanded oversees where labor would be cheaper. They then traded with them, saving more money on labor but taking away more American jobs. The middle class kept spending and around 1990, 55% of women with kids were working for a salary, bring in more income to families and allowing them to continue spending (Reich 7). However, once this spending became too much, citizens went into debt and the debt per household increased by a third over the next 17 years (Reich 7). While all this spending was happening, the government made the mistake of slashing government spending on buildings and roads. It also stopped supporting unemployed workers and allowed companies to punish workers who joined unions (Reich 11). In addition, the government cut the taxes of the top earners in half, bringing out the income inequality that the wealthier don’t have