Argumentative Essay On Equality Vs Inequality

Since the country’s founding, America has been in a constant battle between right and wrong – equality versus inequality. From the Union and Confederacy during the Civil War to within the last seventy years in the Civil Rights Acts, America has been on a loop fighting either for or against equality of all kinds, no matter the context. In the wake of a new presidency, inequality is one of the leading concerns in debates and discussions. Society is aware of the wide equality gap between the miniscule upper class and the majority middle and lower classes; the problem arises in a search for the best solution possible and the motivation to shorten the stretch between society’s elite and poverty stricken.

One of the top issues concerning inequality

Through this direct attack of inaction, Bernstein and Spielberg establish their argument in needing to address a possible solution to the inaccessibility of opportunity to all Americans and the resulting impoverishment that rob children of their right to education (“the chance to realize their intellectual and economic potential”). The problems of the impoverished are not separate from the distinguished wealthy; it’s the same situation but opposite perspectives. They support their claims through extensive studies of various research, extended over decades – as far back as 1970; however, the main research focus is the poverty rise over the last twenty to twenty-five

Beginning their essay, Quartz and Aspapril point out the severe wage drop for nearly all of society, except those in the top one percent; however, studies show American happiness has increased and narrowed in all racial, social, and gender aspects in the past forty years. Less people are concerning themselves on obtaining their happiness through social class and order as in Victorian times, but rather through what’s cool. Relaying a timeline of the transfer from “traditional respectability” to “rebel cool”, they discuss celebrity catalysts like Norman Mailer and James Dean who embraced the wants and needs of the majority (middle and lower classes) and cast aside the values of the minority (the elite). With this revolution, inequality transformed on a personal, emotional level; people no longer care about money nor the status monetary value gives someone, but the scale of coolness of them and their possessions. They solidify their observation by conducting an experiment with local college students and asking them to rate pictures of items on a scale of “cool to uncool.” Furthering their experiment, they brought in different students to look at the same pictures while in an MRI scanner and tracked their brain activity. The cooler things weren’t the more expensive options; they were cool because that’s what those students liked.