Wealth Inequality Essay

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According to the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson stated that, “all men are created equal.” It signifies that all men are equally endowed with rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. However, every human being’s life is equal in value. It does not matter how old, young, poor, or weak a person may be. No one should be excluded from the opportunities to contribute to society and live life freely. Every human being’s life is just as worthy of respect as any other, but our equal worth as human beings does not convey that we are treated equally in every sense or situation. An example of inequality that exemplifies that Americans are not all treated equally is wealth disparity because it discriminates against the poor, while it privileges the rich.
Throughout history, gender and racial discrimination have been considered in parallel as extremely power forces, which unfortunately harm the economy. An example that exemplifies wealth disparity discriminating against the poor, while it privileges the rich is race and gender disparities. Since the 1970s, the increase of women’s labor force participation was initially believed to lower income inequality, but “the increase in female-headed households tend to have lower incomes” (McLaughlin par.9). Women have faced intense discrimination by being on the lower end of the income spectrum. Women are more likely to work in demanding jobs with low-wages, such as teaching, childcare, or waitressing, which is not as highly compensated as male-dominated jobs. In fact, a common idea that people firmly believe is that women are not suitable for upper division positions because they do not have the characteristics that are suitable for those positions. As a matter of fact, w...

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...tribute to society and live life freely. As a solution to wealth disparity, taxes can be used to redistribute income to the poor and use the tax money to fund many different programs, such as some that target poverty and inequality. Improving public schools by unifying them is another solution to wealth disparity. By closing private schools and fully invest in public schools, everyone can receive an education that is equally distributed. By providing equal opportunities for education and taxes being used to redistribute income to the poor will decrease income inequality. In the long run, helping the poor will be beneficial and has a big possibility to end poverty as well. In conclusion, wealth disparity makes inequality a big problem to the fullest extent to social stability in American society because it discriminates against the poor, while it privileges the rich.

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