Income Inequality In The 21st Century

In a Capitalistic Society, the ability to acquire money affects the amount the ability to spend money. The fact is that there are those that are destitute, having very little to live off and those that are affluent and seem they can buy everything. This is egregious to see a disparity among economic classes in the 21st Century. The implication of such a distinction can only mean that Income Inequality negatively impacts an individual and it is also politically and socially detrimental.
The tenacity of trying not to bring income inequality into national discussion brings political repercussions, some as recent as 3 years ago. The year is 2013 and Obama was coming back to office after a tight battle for re-election against Mitt Romney. From

Day 1, the President wanted to make it his top priority on his agenda known. During one of his Remarks, The President spoke of Economic Mobility and stated “The combined trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American Dream, our way of life, and what we stand for around the globe ... [Income Inequality] is the defining challenge of our time” (The White House). The President as well as some top officials of the Democratic party wanted to make it clear that there was going to be an all out assault on income inequality and legislation was to get passed in order to ameliorate Income inequality. The problem was when wanting to speak of Income inequality, can “[risk] accusations of class warfare” as well as it “not [registering] strongly with the American Public” and also led to “emerging debate within the Democratic Party over economic populism and its limits” (Goldfarb 1). The repercussions got so bad that during a private meeting with historians, President Obama told them “what you can do for me is help me find a way to discuss the issue of inequality in our society without being accused of class warfare.”( Dovere 2). The political repercussion are harmful and politicians can not talk about income inequality without suffering negative rebuttal among its citizens. The evidence is clear that the Income inequality is detrimental to our political system.
Income inequality also has been proven to adverse to the civilization in general.

The fact is because there is disparity in the income of people, the things society does are limited to what they can do. This disparity exists even in our educational system, the same system that is supposed to close the wealth gap in between classes by providing all an equal opportunity to all that solicit this education to make their standard of living better, but in reality all it has made the wealth gap even more noticeable. This is due to the ever growing achievement gap. According to Duncan and Murnane research on the ever growing achievement and it’s correlation to Income inequality. The research concluded that “Increasing gaps in academic achievement and educational attainments have accompanied the growth in income inequality.” The research also concluded that “children attending schools with mostly low-income classmates have lower academic achievement and graduation rates than those attending schools with more affluent student populations.” The problem, they said was the exact problem they said is the same exact problem they are trying to overcome through the education, when the paper concluded that “ … increasing income inequality jeopardizes the upward socioeconomic mobility that has long held our pluralistic democracy together.” A recent poll was taken a couple of years showing how susceptible people are to believing the notion “A country to have and soon to haves”. The poll

shows that “ [among] among 1,504 adults, finds that 65% believe the gap between the rich and everyone else has increased in the last 10 years.” and that “60% to 36% margin, most Americans feel the economic system unfairly favors the wealthy, as opposed to being fair to all.” but also “Six-in-ten [of those people] (60%) say most people who want to get ahead can make it if they are willing to work hard.” (Pew Research 1) So to put that in perspective, “ in other word yep I can clearly say this game is rigged which is what's going to make it so sweet when I win this thing.” (qtd. in Last Week Tonight). So as shown is more or less susceptible to a false narrative and can see the ever growing gap within our educational system should more than likely see the detrimental effects of income inequality.
The effects of income inequality are also felt within the economic aspect of society.

This can be seen in the research conducted by the International Monetary Fund or the IMF. This research was done by Joseph Stiglitz, a Keynesian economist and Nobel Prize recipient. The research was published by Jonathan Ostry, the deputy head of the IMF's research department, and the economists Andrew Berg and Charalambos Tsangarides. The findings dismisses right wing argument that redistributing incomes is self-defeating.The IMF dismay rightwing politicians who argue that overcoming inequality robs the rich of incentives to invest and the poor of incentives to work and is counter-productive. There are several rebuttals used for arguing against the existence of income inequality. Another argument is that globalization is making it happen everywhere but John Oliver, who is previously quoted states “it is a divide that it is happening everywhere due to Globalization, which is true but as far as that is happening it is happening at a faster rate here than over in other places.” Also the idea of the wealth gap and it’s move to perfection but also according to Oliver “ No one is arguing for perfection, we are not going to live in a world where we think all Baldwin’s are talented.” There is Doug and than everyone else. Thus showing the research is failing to show any support for those who support the “non-existent” wealth gap. In the end Income inequality has been proven to be detrimental at

economic standpoint.
In conclusion, The effects of income inequality are detrimental to society as a whole. We viewed the acute effects it has on the American political field, and how those that look for solutions through legislation are cut down. Also we viewed how the American education system is failing to combat the problem, and at the most is making it more noticeable. And finally, how the research is failing to show any support for those who support the “non-existent” wealth gap. The only thing that will help solve this problem will have to be that we must change the mentality of the “have and soon to haves” and be a little more realistic.