Wealth Disparities

James Madison once stated inequality of the rich and poor predicament to be “evil” and believed that the government should avoid an “immoderate, and especially unmerited, accumulation of riches” (Johnston, 2016). As one of the founding fathers of our nation, James Madison had a concern about the separation between the rich and the poor. He felt the government should do what it could to avoid the separation, which one can infer that he meant for the government to tax the rich by a greater percentage, thus reducing the financial burden on the poor. A rift has always been present between the rich and the poor throughout history. Depending upon the job, the working class may or may not make enough to support a family. At this point, the

In the late 1800s and the early 1900s, labor was anything but easy. Factory workers faced long hours, low pay, high unemployment fears, and poor working conditions during this time. Life today is much easier in comparison to the late 1800s. Americans have shorter days, bigger pay and easier working conditions. Not comparable to how life is today, many riots sparked, and citizens began to fight for equal treatment. Along with other important events, the Haymarket Riot, the Pullman Strike, and the Homestead strike all play a vital role in illustrating labor’s struggle to gain fair and equitable treatment during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Imagine your parents died at work when you were a young child, and your family was in poverty. This happened all of the time in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s because of the lack of rights for workers. It was the job of many early labor unions of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s make working conditions for workers better. Early labor unions such as the Knights of Columbus, the American Federation of Labor, and the National Labor Union were all successful in creating rights for workers and making working conditions better. There are many ways that labor unions have affected modern day society.

Poverty affects millions of people living in the united states, poverty is measured by the amount of money needed to support the basic needs of a house hold. Poverty is measured by the SSA low-cost food budget assuming 1/3 of the budget is spent on food. The people with the highest percentage of poverty is shown to be Hispanic female households with no spouse present. The vast majority of people in poverty are women and children but in recent years the numbers of women considered poor have raised. Percentage rate is the percentage of poor in different counties. Looking at graph that maps Americas diversity shows that the highest poverty rate is in the South the Midwest has the least. I would assume that has to do with the weather, warmer weather

According to Inequality.org, “We equate wealth with ‘net worth,’ the sum total of your assets minus liabilities. Assets can include everything from an owned personal residence and cash in savings accounts to investments in stocks/bonds, real estate, and retirement accounts. Liabilities cover what a household owes: a car loan, credit card balance, student loan, mortgage, or any other bill yet to be paid. In the United States, wealth inequality runs even more pronounced than income inequality” (Wealth). Wealth disparity affects everyone in America. When the top twenty percent of earners in America take over fifty percent of total earnings in any given year, It can be see as very unfair by anyone who is in the middle class and especially the lower class of citizens in the U.S. It is safe to say that both sides of the political world (Republicans and Democrats) are equally worried about how economic inequality will affect their children and future generations. No matter who you ask, rich or poor, and whatever their opinion on the shape of economic distribution in America is, they most likely have a unrealistic sense of the state it is actually in.

"How Economic Inequality Harms Societies." Richard Wilkinson:. TED Talks, July 2011. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.

The early 19th century in America saw the rise of industry and a booming economy, however, with industry came businessmen who saw an opportunity for power and profit. Even with help from the government, it would be a long time before the American people saw an improvement in the condition of the laborers and the regulation of corporations. Fast forward to the 21st century; two hundred years have passed and people are still struggling at the hands of a corporation-run economy. Throughout history, American laborers have been at the mercy of an industry controlled by a small few that did not have the best interest of the people in mind.

Wealth inequality in the United States has grown tremendously since 1970. The United States continuously reveals higher rates of inequality as a result of perpetual support for free market capitalism. The high rates of wealth inequality cause the growing financial crisis to persist, lower socio-economic mobility, increase national poverty, and have adverse effects on health and well being.

After the Civil War ended the United States moved into a period referred to as the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age brought to America a rapidly growing economy lead and dominated by the heads of industry and finance. As the economy grew, so did the population which would result in a higher demand for labor and jobs to provide the growing families of America. As more and more jobs were created, the working class would begin to see a decline in working conditions. These poor and worsening conditions left workers upset, exhausted, sick, and in some cases conditions were so terrible that many people died while simply doing their job. When workers turned to government for help, it was most often the case that government would side with the employer in order to keep the economy growing. This neglect by both the government and employers would eventually lead for workers to find their own solutions. This came in the form of the steady rise of organized groups of workers who would gather to protest for change, or labor unions. Though not all labor unions had similar philosophies, they all fought for what they believed they rightly deserved. Americans formed labor unions to fight for safer working conditions, better wages, and reasonable working hours. Labor unions such as The Knights of Labor and The American Federation of Labor gained popularity during this time and achieved varying levels of success for their cause. It was not only Anglo men at the time who made up the working class

Throughout American history, labor unions have served to facilitate mediation between workers and employers. Workers seek to negotiate with employers for more control over their labor and its fruits. “A labor union can best be defined as an organization that exists for the purpose of representing its members to their employers regarding wages and terms and conditions of employment” (Hunter). Labor unions’ principal objectives are to increase wages, shorten work days, achieve greater benefits, and improve working conditions. Despite these goals, the early years of union formation were characterized by difficulties (Hunter).

This paper provides insight, reasoning on the wealth disparity in the United States. After all, the social movements that have advocated over the years for equality. The wealth gap remains the same. It continues to be intertwined with politics and racism. Corporation increases the wealth disparity with their political agenda in mind. In the article, "Race, Homeownership, and wealth" by Shapiro Thomas defines wealth and income. Wealth defined as " the total value of a family’s financial resources minus all debts” (Shapiro, 2014); Income “represent the following resources earned in a particular time” (Shapiro, 2014). The two definitions have two very different meanings, but there often misused. Wealth is vague and can refer to many aspects of a person and families "total value" white income is only a particular value. Shapiro argues how “Income and wealth are often confused both in the public mind and in the social science literature” (Shapiro, 2014) Wealth and income carry an important purpose because it represents how society views a person who has wealth. An individual who obtains a significant amount of "money" it is believed because they earned a substantial amount of income. The reality is people who have wealth inherited because of their family. The majority of the one percenters are born into their wealth instead of working for it. The confusion of wealth and income creates a system that does not question individuals on the top of the social pyramid. The society

The wealth gap in the United States is way off compared to what people may think it is or what they would like it to be. I’m actually very shocked of what I found. If we divide the entire United States in five different groups, you can say the first group is the poor, the second is the middle class, third and fourth are even progressively richer and the fifth group is the richest. Personally I would say maybe 40 to 50 percent of Americans are poor. They probably make nothing to twenty thousand a year. The middle class is probably 20 percent of American and they make about 30 to 70 thousand a year. The rest, which are the rich and the richer, makes everything else. My perception of the wealth gap was pretty close to what most Americans think.

Educating the public on wealth inequality can help gain support to reduce wealth inequality. Many politicians have decried policies such as higher taxes and closing loopholes intended to help the middle class and harm the wealthy. Senate President pro tempore Orrin Hatch disagreed with former-President Barack Obama’s speech on tackling income inequality by responding that Obama was committing “class warfare,” which is a statement used by pundits to conceal the actual problem of wealth inequality. In addition, although a lower social mobility in the United States will likely keep people in poverty, around 80% of Americans thought that a person in poverty could eventually become wealthy. In addition, although only 0.2% of estates owed estate

The way money is distributed within the United States is unbalanced, with the majority of the wealthy owning the bulk of the country’s wealth. Wealth can be defined as a person’s assets and monetary gains. This unequal distribution has caused numerous economic and geographical problems, such as how resources are divided among countries, how developed or industrialized a country is in relation to wealth distribution and the wide spread of disease and lack of medical attention due to an absence of money. In this paper I will address the negative and positive aspects associated with wealth distribution. I will explain how resource distribution contributes to an area’s economic growth. I will also discuss varying ways to measure wealth

The unequal distribution of wealth has always been a huge problem that has plagued society throughout the ages. As forms of governments of each nation have changed, the unequal distribution of wealth has remained a constant. Even in Communist countries, which were supposed to eliminate this problem by abolishing the private ownership of land, the unequal distribution of wealth was still a problem in their society. It is difficult for society as a whole to make advancements, because of the unequal distribution of wealth. It also creates a gap between the classes in a society, which usually leads to clashing opinions about many important issues. The unequal distribution of wealth also makes the living conditions of the less fortunate