In the book, The Stakeholder’s Society, Bruce Ackerman and Anne Alstott come up with an idea that every American, once they enter college, or the moment they turn twenty one will receive 20,000 dollars every single year for four consecutive years. In the book, Ackerman and Alstott claim that you are free to spend this money however you see fit. However, once the money is gone, then that is it. Ackerman and Alstott explain further in that the program will be funded by a “wealth tax”. This program will be paid for by contributions from deceased program beneficiaries in the amount of 250,000 dollars. With this plan, Ackerman and Alstott claim that this program will give a “fair” head start to each and every American. This plan, in the author’s …show more content…
However, I think that this book is just an essay on how to take a person’s wealth and give it to the needy in a “Robin Hood” type of way. In this book, “social justice” means that the wealth in this country has to be spread out and I agree with this concept. I also agree that the inequalities in wealth and income in this country and system are atrocious and needs to change in order for the market economy to flourish in the most positive way. Both Ackerman and Alstott are professors at the Yale School of Law and they seem to make a point that the concept of “equality opportunity” is false in this nation. This idea is false because children of families with very high incomes have certain undeserved privileges that give them the fortune of going to private schools or even a very celebrated high school in modern day suburbia. They can even be “surrounded with eager guides to the skills of social advancement…” (pg.108). Children of poorer families do not and some will not gain access to those same things. So with this being said, equality is not something that is given to everyone. Going back the author’s proposal, Ackerman and Alstott propose to pay for this by what they call a trusteeship tax and a privilege tax. The trusteeship tax would pay for the 80,000 dollar stakes and would be raised or lowered every year to guarantee that money could be handed out to the people who are entitled and ready for it. However, the privilege tax entails that each and every American would have to pay a certain percentage of taxes based on how privileged they were during their particular childhood. This privilege would have to be measured somehow, and the book explains that it would be measured by how much money your family earned while you were a child growing
This article was stimulating to me because it related with me on a personal level. I have been discriminated upon many times in my life and this article excellently explained how white privilege plays a role in determining which groups are in the high or low end of the hierarchy spectrum. In Sklar’s article, Imagine a Country, she explains the growing income inequality between individuals by using several statistics that show the rising wealth gap between the lower, middle, and upper class. Throughout her article, Sklar addresses the controversial topic of high government spending by pointing out that there is an unequal amount of resources that are distributed between large programs such as defense and social programs that help reduce poverty. Her critics have stated that because she is presenting statistical facts as it pertains to income inequality, that she is therefore obligated to include proposals that will address and solve this dilemma. The purpose of this article, contrary to what her critics have criticized her for, is not to present a solution to this
Inside of this video, this guy really targets an issue nobody has really been presented. He shows charts that talk about how we Americans think our wealth is distributed. We think distribution is doing alright. Americans think that the bottom 40% is getting a bit of money. They also believe that the middle class is doing reasonably well. Unfortunately, that is not the case. In the video, he breaks it down a little bit getter. He shows a graph that shows how money is actually being distributed. The poorest of poor don 't even register on the poverty line. The middle class is barely making it. And then there is this huge difference between "the rich" and the poor. It is proven that the 1% of America has 40% of the entire nation 's wealth ("Wealth Inequality in America."). The bottom 80% of America only share 7% of the nation 's wealth among themselves. The top 1% has 50% of the stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. The bottom 50% of Americans only own 0.5% ("Wealth Inequality in America."). The poor is not just getting by but they are scraping and fighting to get by. Now that it is clear that there is a lot of poor people in America, it is important to figure out how to fix
The American dream is something everyone knows and strives for. However, not all can achieve this dream just by accidentally finding gold in a stream. Two different classes such as the wealthy and the poor can create many issues. Just as James Baldwin said in his 1985 essay called “The American Dream and the American Negro,” “Unless we can establish some type of dialogue between those people who enjoy the American dream and those who have not achieved it, we will be in terrible trouble,” there will be consequences if the wealthy still causes trouble for the poor. Unfortunately, even though it is the twenty-first century, we have not avoided this “terrible trouble” due to powerful and wealthy Americans and their privileges that still exist
Park Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in all of New York City, home to the ultra rich, the top tier of the American upper class, the 1% (Park Avenue). Those who reside in Park Avenue not only have vast amounts of wealth, but an immense amount of influence that has turned the tables in their favor. But, if you go a couple of miles North of Park Avenue and cross the Harlem river, you arrive at the other side of Park Avenue or otherwise known as the Bronx, one of the poorest districts in all of New York (Park Avenue). Here you see the real hardships average Americans must voyage through in order to put food on the table and provide shelter for their families. 40% of the 700,000 residents who live in the Bronx live in poverty making less than $40 a day (Park Avenue). Some of those residents have lost their jobs due to the economic recession, created by the bankers on the other side of the river (Park Avenue). The wages of these poor citizens has dropped in the past thirty years, while prices have sky rocketed. Even though economic and social hardships have struck these innocent citizens, they still have a chance at achieving the American dream, right? After all, this is America, the land of opportunity, the place where dreams are born and bred. However, America is not what it once was fifty years ago. In today's society, the American dream is hindered by issues involving gender discrimination, racial discrimination, and weak economic mobility. The influence of money has broadened among our society creating an elite group of winners, and leaving the rest as losers. Our government has been intoxicated under the influences of those holding a paper with a handful of zeros scrawled on it....
In the video, Race: The Power of Allusion, “At one point we had explicit laws that says whites are on top, and Blacks are on the bottom. Today, we have many of the same practices without the explicit language...” (Race:The Power of Allusion). One of these specific practices is the Housing segregation that occurs between black and whites. According to Race: The Power of Allusion “As homes in white communities appreciated in value, the net worth of these white families grew. For most non-white families who stayed in urban neighborhoods, the housing market open to them in the 50 's and 60 's was largely a rental market. You don 't gain equity by paying rent.” It is later explained how equity is what determines your wealth. If non-white people are not given chances to build up equity, their wealth is much less than that of a white person. In addition, although this information is from the 1950’s and 60’s, it is still relevant because of what is being inherited from generation to generation. Since non-white people are starting off with less equity, their future offspring will have the same issue. This is just one of the many ways non-white people are continued to be indirectly discriminated against. Once you graduate from college, or further in the future
The main message of “Inequality for all” is trying to find out what is happening in regard to the distribution of income and wealth in the United States.
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.
Krugman challenges us to think about one question, “Why should we care about high and rising inequality?” (Krugman, 586) Some of the reasons inequality is a problem is the standards of living and the lack of progress in the economy for the middle and lower class families (Krugman, 586). These show that the distribution of wealth in the United States is not equal at all. There is also the damage that the inequality does to the society and the government. Thomas Jefferson once said, “The small landholders are the most precious part of a state.” Today that would mean that the middle class is the most important part of our society, however, the farther we move into the future the weaker the middle class becomes (Krugman, 587). The America that we live in is both unequal in income and social aspects. The rich do not live the same lives as those that are less fortunate and the less fortunate do not get to enjoy the perks that come with lives of the rich people. The inequality does not mean that it is unfair that the majority of the population
... rich, this would somehow be the great equalizer and bridge the ever increasing income gap between the wealthy and the less fortunate. However, this concept could not be further from the truth. In essence, this would not solve anything. The unequal distribution of wealth is an erroneous and irrefutable perception America will always be left to face. Whether intentional or not, the unequal distribution within American society is seen as a flaw in our nation’s history.
In recent years, companies are becoming socially responsible and now stakeholders almost expect a company to have CSR policies. Therefore, in twentieth century, corporate social responsibility (CSR) became an important development in public life (Barnett, ND).Corporate social responsibility is defined as “the ways in which an organisation exceeds the minimum obligations to stakeholders specified through regulation and corporate governance” (Johnson, Schools and Whittington, N.D cited in March, 2012). Stakeholders can be defined as “those individuals or groups who depend on the organisation to fulfil their own goals and on whom, in turn, the organisation depends” (Johnson, Schools and Whittington, N.D cited in March, 2012). There are many purposes for this essay, the first purpose is to descried the key principles of corporate social responsibility and explain their importance for stakeholders. Secondly, is to show how far this company follows those principles in order to be accountable to at least three of its stakeholders. In this essay, three stakeholders, environment, customers and employees will be evaluated respectively and the key principles of the stakeholders will be examined.
Stakeholder can be defined as “any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization’s objectives”. This theory focuses on wider aspect rather than only focusing on just the shareholder. Stakeholder theory is a fundamental theory about how business works at its best and how it could work. It is concerning on the value creation and trade on how to manage a business effectively.
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.
In spite of the privileged getting anything money can buy, an underprivileged person gets the important things money cant buy. Many people have heard the expression “if you give a man a fish you can feed them a day, if you teach a man to fish you can feed them a lifetime.” Well I believe privileged people are given fish and the underprivileged taught to fish.
Business organizations regularly run into demands from various stakeholders groups when conducting day-to-day business. These demands are generated from employees, customers, suppliers, community groups, governments, and shareholders. Thus, according to Goodpaster, any person or group of people that can shape or can be shaped by attainment of the objectives by an organization is considered a stakeholder. Most business organizations recognize and understand their responsibilities to these groups and endeavor to honor and fulfill them. These responsibilities are often communicated to the public by a statement of principles or beliefs. For many business organizations, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an essential and integral part of their business. Thus, this paper discusses the two CSR views: the classical view and the stakeholder view. Furthermore, I believe that the stakeholder view has brought ethical concerns to the forefront of businesses, and an argument shall be made that businesses would improve both socially and economically if CSR, guided by God’s love, was integrated into their strategic planning.
A quick look in history can provide many examples of unfair and unjust treatment with distributive ideals. Even today, in our own country, we can see many perceived flaws with this type of justice. Occupy Wall Street started as a protest movement that sought to provide equality in pay for all citizens not just those fortunate enough to be born or rose to the one-percent. The common adage that is used very frequently is “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. This very well could be perceived as...