The Importance Of Economic Inequality

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.

Her argument and reasoning within the essay talks about how economic inequality is “widely known and widely studied” (1). She persuades her readers with many convincing facts and research that contribute to her argument that economic inequality in the United States is nearing its breaking point (2). Jill Lepore writes about the Gini index and how we have been using this method for a hundred years to measure economic inequality and writes “In 2013, the U.S. Census Bureau reported a Gini index of .476” (1). Jill Lepore argues “The growth of inequality isn’t inevitable. But, insofar as Americans have been unable to adopt measures to reduce it, the number might seem to suggest that the problem doesn’t lie with how Americans treat one another’s kids, as lousy as that is. It lies with Congress” (10). She clearly states that even with this knowledge Americans still have made no changes and are incapable of decrease the inequality as it grows within the United States but are willing to blame other things instead of the real issue.

Income Inequality is a major problem that has been going on in America for decades. Many people feel that it barely exists today, but those people are very uneducated and don’t really care about the huge problem in front of them the many people that feel that way are highly uneducated, and seem to not really care about which has been gradually increasing instead of decreasing. 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: Upper Class, Upper Middle Class, Middle Class, Working Class, Poor. The highest percentage of Americans fall in the Poor department, and it has been that way for decades, and will continue to be that way for decades to come.

In today’s world there are defenders of the current distribution of income in the United States such as the Heritage Foundation, which says that America isn’t a caste society because higher income individuals can possibly have a low income the next year and vice versa (Krugman 146). In response, Krugman states that countering economists, sociologists, and media outlets rather exemplify that it is more of a caste society than people would believe and the gaps have become far wider and difficult to cross (146). It is true; however, that America was once a place of substantial inter-generational mobility compared to today. In 1978 adult men whose fathers were born into the bottom 25 percent, 23 percent of those men made it into

Income inequality is increasingly becoming a significant concern for many countries around the world. The income difference between the highly-educated, skilled, wealthy class and the poor, low to mid-skilled workers is growing larger and larger. In fact, the incomes of the rich are increasing significantly, while the low skilled workers’ incomes have been declining (The Economist, “Wealth Without Workers”). According to The Economist, real median wages have been decreasing since 2000 in half of the member countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In the United States, there was a 4% increase from 1980 to 2012 in the share of national income that was distributed to the top 0.01% (The Economist, “True Progressivism”). Canada is facing a similar problem of rising inequality.

In Robert Putnam’s “Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis”, we are introduced to stories that give us glimpses into the lives of youth across America. The stories represent and act as examples of the two very different groups of youth living in our nation today: children born to parents who are educated, and children born to those who likely only graduated high-school and are struggling to stay afloat economically. There are the rich kids and the poor kids, and, as his book and his research illustrate, the gap between the two continues to grow. National trends regarding rising income inequality, the disappearance of the working-class family, and growing class segregation show that the lives and experiences of rich kids and poor kids are drastically different and continue to veer further and further apart. The subject of his book is the “nationwide increase in class inequality- how the class-based opportunity gap among young people has widened in recent decades” (p. 19) and his thesis is that instead of simply talking about inequality of income among adults, we have to focus on this opportunity gap and work to begin closing it.

In the article “The Wealth Gap Is Crushing America’s Youth” by Mandi Woodruff, the author explains how the wealth gap is effecting America’s youth by displaying charts of income inequality comparing the children of American families who were born in a low to high income. Mandi Woodruff cites a study by The Hamilton Project, who uses graphs that uncover economic data that show exactly how income inequality can impact social mobility in America.

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.

High income inequality prevents an economy from growing, so the current status of the wealth gap in the U.S. is dangerous to the future of the U.S. economy. In fact, the average income of the top 10% of the United States population is roughly nine times greater than the average income of the poorest 10% of the population (OECD). This widening wealth gap is a problem of extreme importance and failure to recognize it may lead to social problems such as a rise in crime and overall social unrest. A continuing rise in this wealth gap affects all U.S. citizens as the bottom 99% may lose opportunities in education and be exposed to more crime, and the top 1% may lose consumers as no one will be able to afford their products. Furthermore, due to this rising gap, ordinary children of the masses, who are from the bottom 40%, are being denied to educational opportunities because they cost more money (Ingraham). Regardless if a child is born into a wealthy or poor family, they are still born with the same attributes; however, it is income inequality that creates inequality in educational opportunities for children, which threatens the overall educational status quo of the nation. A major wealth gap in any society is strongly associated with significant problems such as greater poverty levels, more crime, and even poor conditions of health (Partridge and Weinstein).

This article comes from ABC news and was written in the last two weeks. The title of the article is “Why it Matters: Income Inequality” and the concern of the article is how in America the rich keep getting richer and others are left behind in the dust unable to support themselves financially. This concept relates to Chapter One of the text when it was said that “market forces of globalization facilitating exploitation of the most vulnerable members of society on an even larger scale than previously possible.” (*** pg.3) This is one of the key topics that have been debated during the course of this year’s presidential election. The candidates are constantly being asked what they would do about the large income gap that is happening in America and how this huge crisis could be solved. The middle class is seemingly non-existent because of the difficulty

In the past few years, income inequality in the United States has become a familiar theme of national debates, especially during times of presidential elections. Bernie Sanders advocated for a raise in minimum wage, while Ted Cruz offered a national flat tax plan. Hilary Clinton called for a tax raise for the wealthy and an increase in the minimum wage, while Donald Trump planned out a comprehensive tax reform plan including lower tax rates for the US workforce on his campaign site. All of the candidates, running or eliminated, have addressed the topic to various extent; yet only a few focused on how income inequality directly affects the general physical and mental health of the labor force, which may eventually result in economic and social

According to the OECD, the term inequality in the opposite of equity can be defined as evenness

The disproportion of income distribution in America is a hot topic these days, and a major factor in the bondage of poverty. While the economy has grown substantially, the incomes of the underclass have seen the least growth. Levine draws attention to the fact that the share of income for the bottom fifth of the population has hardly changed over the last few decades at less than 4%, yet for the rest of the population it grows at higher rates the farther up the ladder you go. Levine illuminates that “the U.S. income distribution appears to be among the most unequal of all major industrialized countries.”5 While most Americans perceive that we have a society in which one has the power to move up or down the ladder with personal choices, the “empirical analyses suggest that children born into low-income families have not become more likely and may have become less likely to surpass their parents' position at the bottom of the income distribution.”6 There are a lot of variables that will contribute to explaining this immobility, from the added expense of being poor to the cognitive and social effects that are associated therein.

As a first generation immigrant from a developing nation, I am no foreigner to the toxic consequences of a struggling economy like high unemployment rates, aid dependence, social inequality, and violence. Witnessing the detrimental effects of economic inequality has shown me firsthand that a sound economic policy is of paramount importance. A strong desire to address these problems has led me to pursue a degree in Economics.

Discussion around inequality of income was considered taboo at one point in America’s history. Today, disparity is an important topic in politics and daily life. Financial factors are not the sole problem contributing to the proposed lag in transition time from childhood to adulthood. The literature poses a variety of problems for society and individuals affected by various disparities. Sarah Burd-Sharps and Kristen Lewis, both producers of works in popular media outlets who co-direct a group called “Measure of America” that strives to “stimulate fact-based dialogue” about social issues examine this phenomenon in depth in their article that looks beyond the income gap into other areas of inequalities. Burd-Sharps and Lewis observe that while income inequality used to be somewhat taboo, it is now an important and frequently discussed topic (98). They cite four areas outside of income inequality that should be focused on: health, environment, education, and wealth. According to Burd-Sharps and Lewis, children born into poverty are exposed to less prevention of harmful health behaviors and more harmful environmental pollution, given fewer educational resources that are needed to succeed, and often times have less net worth than rich counterparts. Inequality is a problem that presents particularly harsh consequences on children. Burd-Sharps and Lewis state, “[t]hese inequalities have a particularly pernicious impact on disadvantaged children, limiting their life chances long