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Racism segregation in the united states
Racism segregation in the united states
Racial Segregation And African Americans
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Inequality exists around us. One of the inequalities is the income received by a person or member of a family. This income includes wages, salaries, pensions, and interest derived from assets. Income inequality refers to the various income within a given population. This inequality is especially high in the United States.
This inequality stems from the changes within the U.S. economic structure coupled with the changes in our government policy. At least 80% of all citizens work in a service related job. These types of jobs pay far less than the manufacturing jobs that dominated the American economy. With the present economy looking bad, most employers are laying off employees and possibly replacing them with lower paying temporary or part-time employees. Or these employers are moving their companies to foreign nations with cheaper labor.
Governmental policies have made unions to where it is difficult to recruit new members and have influence. These policies have also allow taxes to be cut for the wealthy and decrease the benefits for the poor class. These policies also have allowed the value of the minimum wage to decline, thus keeping down the incomes of poor and working class Americans.
The U.S. government sets a poverty level or line which is the minimum standard of living for a family of two adults and two children. In 2009, this level was set as $21,834. Any family whose income is below this amount is considered in the social class of the poor.
The poor is not in just one race. It crosses the American society no matter what race. But it appears to be prominent in the African Americans and the Hispanics families. They are in small towns and in big cities. They may have full-time jobs and without jobs. They live in t...
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...s dream alive, there needs to be an equalization of the opportunities to a minimum level. I agree to some degree. The opportunities should be available to all American citizens. They should have the same basic education. But once they graduate from high school, they are on their own. It is sink or swim time. Either they succeed or they fail and stay poor.
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Ronald Reagan once said, “We fought a war on poverty, and poverty won.” I read the book, Dancing in the dark by Morris Dickstein. This book was about the great depression, and the impacts it had on American life. The traditional thought of poverty, people dying of hunger and people lying in the roads, has been erased. America has abolished poverty by the traditional standards but the thought of poverty and what it is has changed. In America we consider poverty to be spending all your money on bills, so you have no money left for food to feed your family. We consider poverty to be just being poor. One-Third of our population makes less than $38,000. This is not enough to be able to be above the poverty line. Anything below this “line” is considered being poverty. How do they decide this line? They take the cost of a very basic diet, and they multiply it by three, for a family of three. That being said, One-half of the jobs in America pay below $38,000 a year, so no wonder we are losing the war on poverty.
Wealth inequality and income inequality are often mistaken as the same thing. Income inequality is the difference of yearly salary throughout the population.1 Wealth inequality is the difference of all assets within a population.2 The United States has a high degree of wealth distribution between rich and poor than any other majorly developed nation.3
...he nation’s prosperity as increases in benefits and wages to poor and working class Americans. Most of the gains due to the rise in the GDP in recent years wind up in the hands of the wealthiest of Americans. The increase in income inequality has cause stagnation in real wages among low skilled workers and has led to an increase in poverty. Unable to gain the education necessary to escape the cycle of low skilled jobs with little chance of upward mobility, children of parents who are in poverty stand a higher chance of being in poverty themselves. The solution to the problem of poverty is not simple; especially when it may involve changes in the way the U.S. labor market functions. However, as it stands now, failures of the labor market lead to higher rates of poverty, and unless the problem is addressed, we are unlikely to see a reduction in the U.S. poverty rate.
America in today's society is burdened with many economic and political problems that have begun to plague the nation. Controversial topics are constantly being debated from sunrise to sunset across the country with supporters and those who oppose each bearing various levels of financial and political misfortune. With the numerous economic and political problems that affect the nation, the argument over the issue of income inequality is one of the most notable. Creating a political civil war, proponents from both sides have brought the issue into national view and debate has grown substantially within recent years.
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.
has generally lowered, further showing the inequality that exists in our nation. It is usually difficult for the lower classes to achieve financial success because a high income job requires good education which the lower classes lacks because they cannot afford it.
Income inequality not only harms us fiscally, but also affects our mental and physical wellbeing; therefore, it is important to identify the right ways to control wealth distribution among people.
reading this book makes me realize it is a completely different world in “the projects.” I always thought it was that individual’s fault for not getting out of the projects and they chose to live that type of life. MacLeod’s findings and interviews with the kids made me realize that is not the case. I now see that social inequalities make it very difficult for social mobility to
The Federal Government defines poverty as income that falls below the United States Poverty threshold. (Begun 95). If a person is below or right at the poverty line they are considered poor. It also refers to the lowest level of income a person can make and afford the minimum necessities. (Bender and Leone 23). The poverty line was adopted by the government in the mid 1960's. Not included in the income figure are cash benefits such as food stamps and Medicaid.(Le Vert 50). The poverty rate is adjusted for different sexes, races, ages, and family structures. The government adjusts the poverty line each year according to the cost of living.
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