Wealth inequality, sometimes referred to as the wealth gap is the unequal distribution of assets among residents in an economy. Wealth includes the values of homes, automobiles, personal valuables, businesses, savings, investment and cash. Currently global wealth inequality is growing, with half the world’s wealth now in the hands of a mere 1% of the population.
In the UK wealth inequality has risen since 2000, as the gap in wealth per adult between the lower segment and rest of the population has increased.
The Credit Suisse survey calculates that there are now 2.4 million dollar millionaires in the UK, up 68,000 on a year earlier. In the US the number of millionaires is now more than 15m – up 903,000.
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
Now more than in recent past is economic and wealth inequality a crucial issue in
There are five main sociological explanations of unequal distributions of wealth and income in contemporary Britain that I will be discussing as well as explaining within this essay.
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.
It is a commonly accepted that inequality is increasing throughout the globe, with startling statistics such as the recent Oxfam report indicating that the richest 85 people in the world own more wealth than the poorest 3.5 billion people(Oxfam Australia Media, 2014). Inequality is thought of as disparities or gaps, such as the distance between a low income and a high income household, or the ratio of their incomes (Divided We Stand, 2011). Domestic inequality refers to inequality within a country and
“The United States income inequality has risen drastically since the 1970’s and has not been this high since 1928.” Economic inequality is the unequal differences in how assets, wealth, and income are dispersed among the people and different populations throughout the United States. It is often described as the gap between the rich and the poor.
According to Henslin (2015), “Weber illustrates, a large group of people who rank close to one another in property, power, and prestige; according to Marx, one of two groups: capitalists who own the means of production or workers who sell their labor” This is a dynamic that should be working currently in American society. However, in the past three decades there has been a gap between the poor and the not very rich. This gap has not happened by itself. According to Reich (2015), in the movie Inequality For All, “…the all
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.
First we must define what exactly income inequality really is and that is according to Definition of ‘Income Inequality’ (2015) said to be unequal income distributed to household or individual across the various participants in an economy. Income inequality is often presented as the percentage of income to a percentage of population. For example,
Income and wealth inequality refers to the degree to which income is unevenly distributed among people in an economy. The share of total income received by different groups measures inequality, this visually represented in the Lorenz curve. The line of perfect equality bisects the graph with the percentage of income
The wealth gap is the unequal distribution of assets. The problem is that in the U.S. that if you are born poor you generally stay poor and vice versa for a rich person. The real issue is the middle class, which is becoming stretched due to the gap. The gap which is becoming larger is taking the middle class to the breaking point. The middle class is slowly being absorbed into the wealthy or the poor.
What is wealth inequality? “It is the difference between individuals or populations in the distribution of assets, wealth or income.” [1] In sociology, the term is social stratification and refers to “a system of structured social inequality” [2] where the inequality might be in power, resources, social standing/class or perceived worth. In the US, where a class system exist, (as opposed to caste or estate system) your place in the class system can be determined by your personal achievements. However, the economic and social class that an individual is born into is a big indicator of the class they will end up in as an adult. [3] What are the effects of this wealth inequality in the US and what causes it as well as some possible solutions
The wealth gap, or wealth inequality, is the uneven distribution of wealth within the United States. The gap in the United States is one of the largest gaps between the rich and the poor out of most developed countries. The wealth gap is impossible to ignore when “income inequality has been increasing steadily since the 1970s, and now has reached levels not seen since 1928.” (D. Desilver, 2013)
What exactly is wealth disparity? And why does it matter? Using terms such as distribution of assets would give the idea that we live in a socialistic economy. This word seems to be a Taboo in America, but people don’t realize that we are very close to this concept. It is just hidden better. There are many reasons that this disparity needs to shrink. Studies that will be discussed later, will show a correlation of the number of citizens that reside in poverty: crime rates are higher, more children go hungry, and the overall health of the population is affected. Although there are many arguments that will contradict this assessment, there is no disputing the facts. People need to remember that those of us that are fortunate to be rich,
Income inequality is universally known as the divide in acquisition of wealth between the elites of the world and the poorest of the world. As far as developed nations go across the world, the United States holds most of the differences between the rich and the poor. Ray Williams outlines in his paper that “the richest 20 percent of American society [control] about 84 percent of the country’s wealth” which is a huge abundance of wealth to be held by such a small percent of citizens in one country