The entire world attempts to make a better life for themselves; however, too often the majority of the people of a country will suffer more from their technology than benefit from them. As technology increases the wealth distribution in the United States has shifted from all having relatively equal wealth to the rich becoming even more rich than everyone else. Since the 1970’s the wealthy have gained more wealth while the lower and middle class have begun to suffer shown by “…the share of total household wealth owned by the top 0.1 percent increasing to 22 percent in 2012 from 7 percent in the late 1970s” (Saez, & Zucman, 2014, Np). Robert Reich in “Why the Rich are Getting Richer and the Poor Poorer,” discusses the inequality that technology …show more content…
The people in this boat are considered the people that have to be physically in the country to provide a service to their customers, they are not simply providing a product. Many lawyers and doctors fit in this category as well as cashiers and several other positions. Reich discusses why the second boat stays afloat longer though it is descending by saying, “In-person servers are sheltered from the direct effects of global competition and, like everyone else, benefit from access to lower-cost products from around the world” (Reich, 1991, p. 311) After this he discusses the indirect effects of the global market on the second boat. One example is that as more people from the first boat get laid off, they start to look for work in these businesses that have more job security. This provides more competition for the jobs that are not as readily available as to meet the demands of the numbers of people applying for them. Another limiting resource that replaces many of these jobs is machines as the Reich predicts in his essay, “fiercest competition… comes from labor-saving machinery. Automated tellers, computerized cashiers, automatic car washes…” (Reich, 1991, p. 312) as well as several other examples of machines. These machines will outdate the need for humans to actually take any part in these jobs soon which will increase profits for the upper class, but suppress the poor from ever reaching a higher standard of
3. What are the effects of this wealth inequality in the US and what causes it, as well as some possible solutions and their ramifications, will all be discussed and answered below. There has always been a wealth gap between the richest and poorest in society. However, in the past decade, the wealth gap between the richest and poorest citizens in the US has been growing rapidly. In the 70s and 80s, the wealth and income growth rate for both poor and rich people were similar, however, between the years 2009 and 2012 the top 1% income increased 31% while for the bottom 20%, their income actually dropped and for the vast majority of Americans, the average yearly income only increased by 0.4% [4].
The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison by Jeffrey Reiman and Paul Leighton has been used for years as a way to address issues such as ideologies and class struggles within the criminal justice system. The book focuses on controlling crime, defining crime and disparities between social classes. I believe the book makes some very interesting points but was overall a waste of my time to read because most of what is said were things I was already very much aware of.
Taking Sides Summary-Analysis Form. Title and Author of Article: Christopher Jencks. Briefly state the main idea of this article: The main idea of this article is that economic inequality has steadily risen in the United States between the richest people and the poorest people. And this inequality affects the people in more ways than buying power; it also affects education, life expectancy, living conditions and possibly happiness.
With each class comes a certain level in financial standing, the lower class having the lowest income and the upper class having the highest income. According to Mantsios’ “Class in America” the wealthiest one percent of the American population hold thirty-four percent of the total national wealth and while this is going on nearly thirty-seven million Americans across the nation live in unrelenting poverty (Mantsios 284-6). There is a clear difference in the way that these two groups of people live, one is extreme poverty and the other extremely
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.
In the United States there are four social classes : the upper class, the middle class, the working class, and the lower class. Of these four classes the most inequality exists between the upper class and the lower class. This inequality can be seen in the incomes that the two classes earn. During the period 1979 through the present , the growth in income has disproportionately grown.The bottom sixty percent of the US population actually saw their real income decrease in 1990 dollars. The next 20% saw medium gains. The top twenty percent saw their income increase 18%. The wealthiest one percent saw their incomes rise drastically over 80%. As reported in the 1997 Center on Budget's analysis , the wealthiest one percent of Americans ( 2.6 million people) received as much after-tax income in 1994 as the bottom 35 percent of the population combined (88 million people). But in 1977 the bottom 35 percent had about twice as much after tax income as the top one percent. These statistics further show the disproportional income growth among the social classes. The gr...
Why are so a large number of people that beg for money, sitting on the streets, looking for food 's some sort? It is not day-to-day that we consider situations like this, but it is out there constantly without all of us realizing it. A number of states have poverty 's more issues than others, but it is sad to think about how plenty of people are actually considered to be in poverty. This is an inequality concerning me a lot, and is getting worse daily. Poverty in the United States relates to people whose annual household earnings are less than a poverty line set by the United States government. Poverty is common, resulted in by numerous different factors such as failing markets, structural problems, unfortunate mishaps, and poor individual
Reich, Robert. "Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor Poorer." Mountain View College Reader. Neuleib, Janice. Cain S., Kathleen. Ruffus, Stephen. Boston: 501 Boylston Street, Suite 900. 2013 Print.
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 income gap in America has been increasing steadily since the late 1970’s, and has now reached historic highs not seen since the 1920’s (Desilver). UC Berkeley economics professor, Emmanuel Saez conducted extensive research on past and present income inequality statistics and published them in his report “Striking it Richer.” Saez claims that changes in technology, tax policies, labor unions, corporate benefits, and social norms have caused income inequality. He stands to advocate a change in American economic policies that will help close this inequality gap and considers institutional and tax reforms that should be developed to counter it. Although Saez’s provides legitimate causes of income inequality, I highly disagree with the thought of making changes to end income inequality. In any diverse economic environment, income inequality will exist due to the rise of some economically successful people and the further development of factors that push people into poverty. I believe income inequality e...
Hart Research Associates, 2010. Reich, Robert. “Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor Poorer.” The Work of Nations.
One very important factor Reich examines in his essay is that large corporations are always trying to find the edge, whether that is new technology or cheaper wages. One may ask how does that affect me? Large corporations seeking the extra dollar to pocket as are willing to spend whatever it takes to reduce the cost of production and increase profit margins. Doing whatever it takes in some instances can men moving operations overseas to developing countries who are glad to be working. These developing countries unemployment rates are extremely high, so any job that pays is great to have. Americans lose jobs to foreign workers because the American
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.
Technology has significantly changed our lives over the last couple centuries. From the industrial revolution to the digital revolution, it has affected not only the way we work and create things, but also the way we interact with information and even with each other. However, just like with the industrial revolution, some argue that today’s the rapidly evolving technology is replacing labor instead of complementing it and contributing, if not instigating, the wide disparity in income and the stagnant lower and middle-class wages observed in developed economies. In **Technology and Inequality**, **Teach Leaps, Job Losses and Rising Inequality**, **Technology didn’t kill the middle class jobs, public policy did**, and **The Onrushing Wave**, authors David Rotman, Eduardo Porter, Dean Baker, and an unnoted author
Stewart, Charles T., Jr. "Inequality of Wealth and Income in a Technologically Advanced Society." The Journal of Social, Political, and Economic Studies 27.4 (2002): 495-512. Print.
In the world today there is a lot of poverty. There is a great divide