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Inequality, itself, may seem like an aspect that is surrounding the academic subject of history. An American economist, Paul Krugman, substantiates that inequality exists within our society through connections to several important historical movements. “One of the best arguments I’ve ever seen for the social costs came from a movement [...].” (Page 562) He implies how inferior inequality could be, and discusses why he along with a wide array of an American audience, may give some attention to its rising. Krugman makes “Confronting Inequality,” interesting, challenging, and enjoyable. This author approaches the audience by giving a powerful inception, and appealing to the senses of ethos and pathos. We, as Americans, view inequality one way, while Krugman perceives it rhetorically. This rhetorical view represents his signal to us, stating the fact that our society changes continuously. “The America I grew up in was a [...] middle class society. Over the past generation, …show more content…
He presents several concepts that connect to Inequality in a variety of ways. According to the essay, the focus is centered on inequality consisting of many forms. First, he begins by asking us the rhetorical question of whether we, as Americans, should care about it. Afterwards, provides the audience with a lengthy discussion of how bad inequality is and how it should be corrected inside various aspects including, education, healthcare, and care of children. Several of the concepts within the essay strongly appeal to ethos and pathos. This shows us that Krugman made a strong argument, supporting it as he explains gently explains inequality, and how it exists in many forms, other than academic history. Personally, I did not find Krugman’s essay difficult. Instead, I viewed it as challenging, educational and fun to read. If I were asked to read it again for educational purposes, I definitely
To prove his point, Krugman explains that about forty years ago (thought to be because of the New Deal) the United States was mainly a middle class society with opportunities move up in the class rankings. In contrast, today's society leads americans to believe that income is a fluctuating thing; one year you
According to Gregory Mantsios many American people believed that the classes in the United States were irrelevant, that we equally reside(ed) in a middle class nation, that we were all getting richer, and that everyone has an opportunity to succeed in life. But what many believed, was far from the truth. In reality the middle class of the United States receives a very small amount of the nation's wealth, and sixty percent of America's population receives less than 6 percent of the nation's wealth, while the top 1 percent of the American population receives 34 percent of the total national wealth. In the article Class in America ( 2009), written by Gregory Mantsios informs us that there are some huge differences that exist between the classes of America, especially the wealthy and the poor. After
Inequality is defined as: a symbolic expression of the fact that two quantities are not equal. In “The Invention Of Wings”, a historical fiction novel written by Sue Monk Kidd, we see how the characters are affected by inequality. The book revolves around Sarah Grimke, and her hand slave Handful, and reveals to the readers of their hardships that they both face together and separately growing up in Charleston, Virginia in the 1800s. In this book, we see various forms of inequality, such as race, gender, and age, and how they affect the main characters of the book: Sarah, Handful, and Charlotte.
Gregory Mantsios presents himself as an expert in this essay because he states a lot of facts. The author uses stats, his own opinion, and my favorite thing that brought me in was the myths that he told the reality’s for later in the essay. Mantsios believes that no matter what social or economic class that you fall into, you have a fair chance at succeeding in life. I feel that the intended audience is the citizens of America or people in the workforce since they are the ones that have to deal with this situation. The thesis of this essay is “Perhaps, most importantly, the point that is missed is that inequality is persistent and structural-
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in his work Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, gives his opinion on the topic of progression and how it has historically developed man from his natural state into a player in today’s civilized societies, including the economic structure and inequality that is present. Though, Adam Smith, based on his findings which he delineates in his works, Wealth of Nations, Theory of Moral Sentiments, and Lectures on Jurisprudence, would take issue with Rousseau’s philosophy on several accounts. In the philosophical spectrum of Hobbes to Rousseau in the discussion of man in his natural state, Smith falls in the middle, as he tends to agree and disagree with both philosophers on various aspects of the debate. Following a close reading of the text, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Smith would be very critical of Rousseau and the ideas he expresses.
This article was stimulating to me because it related with me on a personal level. I have been discriminated upon many times in my life and this article excellently explained how white privilege plays a role in determining which groups are in the high or low end of the hierarchy spectrum. In Sklar’s article, Imagine a Country, she explains the growing income inequality between individuals by using several statistics that show the rising wealth gap between the lower, middle, and upper class. Throughout her article, Sklar addresses the controversial topic of high government spending by pointing out that there is an unequal amount of resources that are distributed between large programs such as defense and social programs that help reduce poverty. Her critics have stated that because she is presenting statistical facts as it pertains to income inequality, that she is therefore obligated to include proposals that will address and solve this dilemma. The purpose of this article, contrary to what her critics have criticized her for, is not to present a solution to this
With the idea of Alger’s moral, America is a place where the poor can become rich. Krugman disagreed with Alger because it never has been as easy as it sounds. “The Death of Horatio Alger” by Paul Krugman concentrated on the causes of economic inequality and the value of the American Dream. This article was published in 2004. Krugman received the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2008 fro trade patterns and economic activity. Paul Krugman attended Yale University then Massachusetts Institute of Technology and teaches at Princeton University. The life of economic inequality is characterized by the increasing of the income and wealth inequality, the hardness of the poor adapting to the upward mobility and the inheritance socioeconomic status from the previous generation.
In Confronting Inequality, Paul Krugman discusses the cost of inequality and possible solutions. Krugman argues to say that it is a fantasy to believe the rich live just like the middle class. Then, he goes into detail about how middle class families struggle to try to give their children a better life and how education plays a factor in children’s future lives. For example, children’s ability to move into higher education could be affected by their parents economic status. Also, He discusses how politicians play a role in the inequality, because most of politicians are in the upper economic class. Finally, Krugman says how we could possibly have solutions to these various inequalities, but how America won’t get
In Rousseau’s book “A Discourse On Inequality”, he looks into the question of where the general inequality amongst men came from. Inequality exists economically, structurally, amongst different generations, genders, races, and in almost all other areas of society. However, Rousseau considers that there are really two categories of inequality. The first is called Natural/Physical, it occurs as an affect of nature. It includes inequalities of age,, health, bodily strength, and the qualities of the mind and soul. The second may be called Moral/Political inequality, this basically occurs through the consent of men. This consists of the privileges one group may have over another, such as the rich over the poor.
Where would you consider yourself with your ranking in America 's social classes, are you upper class, middle class or even lower class? This is actually very important when it come to you receiving opportunities and in a sense special treatment. I’m referring to of course social inequality which is still very much alive in America and still affects a lot of families mostly in a negative way. This problem in America has grabbed the attention of two authors, Paul Krugman who wrote “Confronting Inequality” and Gary S. Becker and Kevin M. Murphy who wrote “The Upside of Income Inequality”. However, they both have different views on inequality Krugman believes that social inequality is only negative while on the other hand, Becker and Murphy believe Krugman believes that the only way to get into a good school is to be living in a higher economic area.
Inequality exist and is high in America because the amount of income and wealth that is distributed through power. In America the income distribution is very inequality and the value of a person wealth is based on their income with their debts subtracted. “As of 2007, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 34.6% of all privately held wealth, and the 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 50.5%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 85%, leaving only 15% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers)” (Domhoff, 2011). In contrary the poor do not get ahead and the rich get more. Americans are judged and placed in class categories through their home ownership which translates to wealth. Americans social class is often associated with their assets and wealth. “People seek to own property, to have high incomes, to have interesting and safe jobs, to enjoy the finest in travel and leisure, and to live long and healthy lives” (Domhoff, 2011). Power indicates how these “values” are not distributed equally in American society. Huge gains for the rich include cuts in capital gains and dividends and when tax rates decrease for the tiny percent of Americans income is redistributed. Taxes directly affect the wealth and income of Americans every year.
If I had to describe a moment from INEQUALITY FOR ALL that is really sticking with you – maybe you found it particularly inspiring or particularly troubling it would be the statement made by Robert Reich, “Of all developed nations the U.S. has the most unequal distribution of income.” What was it about that moment that is so memorable? He also states, “the richest 400 people in America have more wealth then the bottom 50 million of us put together.”
Inequality has always existed in some form or another in the world. It takes shape in various forms like, gender, race, and age. These systems of inequality are caused by uneven distribution of goods and disparity between people. They are important to recognize because they shape how society acts and reacts to everyone’s differences, and educates the public so they are aware of of their actions. There will probably always be inequality in the world because everyone has differences, and truthfully life wouldn’t be sustainable if everyone was the same, but the important part is that these differences don’t lead to oppression and segregation.
Income inequality continues to increase in today’s world, especially in the United States. Income inequality means the unequal distribution between individuals’ assets, wealth, or income. In the Twilight of the Elites, Christopher Hayes, a liberal journalist, states the inequality gap between the rich and the poor are increasing widening, and there need to have things done - tax the rich, provide better education - in order to shortening the inequality gap. America is a meritocratic country, which means that everybody has equal opportunity to be successful regardless of their class privileges or wealth. However, equality of opportunity does not equal equality of outcomes. People are having more opportunities to find a better job, but their incomes are a lot less compared to the top ten percent rich people. In this way, the poor people will never climb up the ladder to high status and become millionaires. Therefore, the government needs to increase all the tax rates on rich people in order to reduce income inequality.
Kerbo, H. R. (2012). Social stratification and inequality: class conflict in historical, comparative, and global perspective (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.