Part A

All around the world, governments and citizens face a large range of social issues. For most people, the biggest social issues in society are media(censorship and social), education, diseases, crime rates, and the overall state of the economy. While these are all extreme issues that effect all people of the society, there are many others that are not fully recognized as social problems; two of these problems are inequality and poverty. As a citizen of the United States, one of the richest nations and coincidently one of the most unequal as well, I have noticed the many issues one can face with inequality. I have also noticed that many Americans have overlearned the ideas of the "American Dream" and what it means to be an American. This has lead to the misguided belief that America truly is the land of the free and that everyone has equal opportuinites. Inequality and poverty are topics that have been overlooked by many citizens but acknowledged by social scientists like Paul Krugman, Richard Wolff, Jacob Hacker & Paul Pierson, and Richard Wilkinson. These social scientists have conducted research and formed their own theories on inequality and poverty as social problems. Even though all of these men have made strong arguments on this topic, I felt that Wilkinson's argument was most effective.
While reading over the guidelines for this essay, I wondered what exactly was meant by a social problem. I wasn't sure if it just meant a problem societies face as a whole or if there was some other terminology behind it, so I looked up social problems as a term. After reading several definitions, I combined a few into a single definition. Social problems are issues that effect each individual member of a society either directly or indirectly...

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... provides great points on inequality of wealth as well as inequality of educatin and opportunities. He speaks about the overlearned beliefs of many Americans that anyone who wants more taxes or seeks a better economic system is against America. Wolff also explains how many people choose to believe they are living in the greatest nation because of denial, when he says, “Often people cling all the harder to an idea, precise;y because the reality is so different,“ and also when he says,“The myth of equal opportunity is more attractive, more beautiful, the more they know it’s slipping away.“ All of these men have made great points on the effects, causes, and simple solutions to inequality. The biggest, and simplest quote of these videos in my personal opinion is from Wolff,“If you want equality of opportunity, you’re gonna have to create equality of income and wealth.“