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Income and wealth inequality sociology
Income and wealth inequality sociology
Income and wealth inequality sociology
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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... ... middle of paper ... ...ment, income inequality will exist due to the rise of some economically successful people and the further development of factors that push people into poverty. Although it may not seem fair that there are rich people blowing money on impractical and meaningless things while people live in poverty, it’s a reality that the United States has experienced for centuries. Works Cited Desilver, Drew. “U.S. Income Inequality, On The Rise…” Pew Research Center. 5 Dec. 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. Obama, Barack. “Obama’s Powerful Speech On Income Inequality.” THEARC. Washington, D.C. 04 December 2013. Pettinger, Tejvan. “Pros and Cons of Inequality.” Economics Help. 18 Oct. 2011. Web. 13 Feb. 2014. Saez, Emmanuel. “Striking It Richer.” Elsa.berkeley.edu. 3 Sep. 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. Sutter, John. “What is income inequality, anyway?” CNN. 29 Oct. 2013. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.
Stone, Chad, Danilo Trisi, Arloc Sherman, and William Chen. "Center on Budget and Policy Priorities." A Guide to Statistics on Historical Trends in Income Inequality. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 6 Nov. 2013. Web. 03 Dec. 2013. .
“A Guide to Statistics on Historical Trends in Income Inequality.” cbpp.org. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2013. Web. 06 April. 2014. .
Throughout the years, “ U.S income inequality has been increasing steadily since the 1970s and now has reached levels not seen since 1928” (Source A).
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...
Scarborough, Joe. “Top 1% Took 95% of Gains Since 2009.” Tampa Bay Times. January 21, 2014. Web. March 11, 2014. In this article the authors shows how income inequality has been changing over the time. He also tries to emphasize how large this gap has become by comparing income and taxation of the top 1% with the rest of the nation.
Whaley, Mary. "Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class." Booklist 1 July 2007: 15. EBSCO Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Feb. 2014.
"Wealth Inequality in the United States." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Apr. 2014. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
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.
Income inequality is not necessarily harmful to our society because if the rich is getting richer they are able to invest more of their money to create business which will lead to more employment of people in the lower and middle class. A topic we also discussed in class was about the income mobility. The idea behind income mobility is that the poor does not always remain poor. People who were poor in the past are usually not poor later on in the future because the size of the economic pie increase too. People may think that the rise of income inequality is bad, but I do not really think it is as bad as many make it out to be. A solution should be put in place for a better distribution of the wealth, but I do not believe it should really be a concern because it seems to be something that will always exist. Even though income inequality exist or even if it is rising, people are better off today than they were before. The middle and poor class as discussed in class are getting a smaller peace of the pie, but it is larger that before, and with income mobility, the poor keep pushing forward regardless of the rich getting richer. Income inequality is a debated subjected, and I believe it will always be a debated subject. However in this class, so far, I have leaned that income inequality is not such as a bad thing as people make it sound. Income inequality has two side
The United States of America is one of the richest countries in the world. In fact, we rank 9th in gross domestic output (Atlas), yet this is also the same country where too many working parents have to go without meals so that their children can eat, and families are often left deciding which bill they can actually afford to pay this month. With that being said, as a country, we also have some of the highest rates of income inequality of comparable developed nations (Radius TWC). It’s not that people are working less, on the contrary, Americans are now working twice as hard as previous generations, yet they are getting nowhere (Kornbluth). Income inequality does not just harm one person; income inequality hurts the entire
However, the inequality gap in the United States is large. In recent decades, one of the economic trends in the United States is the growth in the centralization of economic power. According to the textbook, the bottom 90% of stock owners owned only 19% of all stock value and the real control of the American economy belongs to a small amount of people (Harper and Leicht 106). In addition, the economies have changed a lot and the number of labor-intensive companies is decreasing the the number of technology-intensive companies is increasing. Therefore, many people lose their jobs. The unemployment deprives people of the ability to buy enough food. The decreasing salary also makes it difficult for residents to buy adequate food. According to the documentary Inequality for All, the typical male work was making about $48,000 a year in 1978, but he earned less in 2010. The living cost is increasing, but the income of the workers is decreasing. It becomes more difficult for people to make ends
N.p., 12 Sep 2014. Web. The Web. The Web. 10 Sept 2015.
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.
"Growing Income Inequality and the Education Gap." Economist's View. N.p., 8 May 2006. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.
There has been a dramatic shift of inequality within the United States. This shift has favored the wealthy and left the middle class struggling to pay for simple items such as healthcare, childcare, and education. It has been argued that today’s middle now resembles the working poor. Due to this imbalance, the United States economy has suffered from wage decreases, child poverty, segregation, and minimal upward mobility. Inequality is bad for economic growth. Distribution of wealth, education, and health are contributing factors of inequality which affect economic growth.