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income inequality research
income inequality research
income inequality research
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Where would you consider yourself with your ranking in America 's social classes, are you upper class, middle class or even lower class? This is actually very important when it come to you receiving opportunities and in a sense special treatment. I’m referring to of course social inequality which is still very much alive in America and still affects a lot of families mostly in a negative way. This problem in America has grabbed the attention of two authors, Paul Krugman who wrote “Confronting Inequality” and Gary S. Becker and Kevin M. Murphy who wrote “The Upside of Income Inequality”. However, they both have different views on inequality Krugman believes that social inequality is only negative while on the other hand, Becker and Murphy believe Krugman believes that the only way to get into a good school is to be living in a higher economic area. Krugman 's even go about saying that this is why there is such a huge economic gap between social class. According to Krugman “Instead the rise in debt mainly reflected increased spending on housing, largely driven by the competition to get into good school districts. Middle- class Americans have been caught up in a rat race, not because they’re greedy or foolish but because they’re trying to give their children a chance in an increasingly unequal society”(564-565). All in all Krugman is saying that the only way for children in this day in age to receive a good education is by either being from an upper class family or making the public believe that your upper class, even though you can not afford that lifestyle. Which is not necessarily true because if you are willing to work hard enough you can go as far as you want in education. Just think there is always scholarships and programs available for people who are very dedicated to school and their career that can maybe help aid them financially. For example one of my friends that I know who isn 't from the wealthiest family still managed to make it into a good school because he was a good student and was willing to go above and beyond. So does coming from a wealthy family make it easier for you to get into a better school Becker and Murphy have a different idea on how to change the education system for the better instead of just lowering the cost of it. They believe if instead of changing the top of the food chain (upper class) we should change the foundation of the food chain (middle/lower class). This change would involve helping the lower class kids stay more motivated to stay in school longer, which in the end would make them much more successful in life. As reported by Becker and Murphy “So instead of lamenting the increased earnings gap caused by education, policymakers and the public should focus attention on how to raise the fraction of American youth who complete high school and then go on for a college education”(588). Basically Becker and Murphy are just saying that the public should create situations so that the youth that are struggling in school are focused on and pushed to do better, thus allowing them to go farther in their education career. I think this idea is great because it does not punish anyone or anything like Krugman 's solution does. Becker and Murphy solution with the education system is all about helping the less fortunate, rather than taking away from them because they are from a wealthy
In Confronting Inequality, Paul Krugman discusses the cost of inequality and possible solutions. Krugman argues to say that it is a fantasy to believe the rich live just like the middle class. Then, he goes into detail about how middle class families struggle to try to give their children a better life and how education plays a factor in children’s future lives. For example, children’s ability to move into higher education could be affected by their parents economic status. Also, He discusses how politicians play a role in the inequality, because most of politicians are in the upper economic class. Finally, Krugman says how we could possibly have solutions to these various inequalities, but how America won’t get
Growing up in The United States, people are given this idea of an American Dream. Almost every child is raised to believe they can become and do anything they want to do, if one works hard enough. However, a majority of people believe that there is a separation of class in American society. Gregory Mantsios author of “Class in America-2009” believes that Americans do not exchange thoughts about class division, although most of people are placed in their own set cluster of wealth. Also political officials are trying to get followers by trying to try to appeal to the bulk of the population, or the middle class, in order to get more supporters. An interesting myth that Mantsios makes in his essay is how Americans don’t have equal opportunities.
According to Gregory Mantsios many American people believed that the classes in the United States were irrelevant, that we equally reside(ed) in a middle class nation, that we were all getting richer, and that everyone has an opportunity to succeed in life. But what many believed, was far from the truth. In reality the middle class of the United States receives a very small amount of the nation's wealth, and sixty percent of America's population receives less than 6 percent of the nation's wealth, while the top 1 percent of the American population receives 34 percent of the total national wealth. In the article Class in America ( 2009), written by Gregory Mantsios informs us that there are some huge differences that exist between the classes of America, especially the wealthy and the poor. After
In her article she points out how social class has become the main gateway to opportunity in America. The widening academic divide means that kids who grow up poor will most likely stay poor and the kids who grow up rich will most likely stay rich. About fifty years ago the main concern about getting a good education relied on your race but now it's about your social class. Researchers are starting to believe that children who come from higher income families tend to do better in school and get higher test scores.
Having access to a good education is a big part of achieving the American Dream because if there is a really good job opportunity out there people are likely to get the job if they are highly educated. JD Vance talked about how his life growing up was not the best. He faced everyday challenges, however, they were not excuses that could stop him from getting an education and surely did not stop him from achieving the American Dream. In the article “The American Dream: ‘Education is the Key’” the writer states “ My parents grew up poor, put themselves through school...They were very clear that just as it was for them, education would be a critical bridge to opportunity for my brothers and me” (Golston). This comes to show that there really is not an excuse for people to say they cannot achieve the American Dream because they cannot afford to get an education. It takes hard work, dedication, and
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...
According to David Croteau social class is “a group of who share a roughly similar economic position and lifestyle,” a large group of who rank closely to one another in property (wealth), power, and prestige according to Weber. Stratification systems “are made up of social structures and cultural norms that create and maintain inequality by ranking people into a hierarchy of groups that receive unequal resources.” With these two terms we used these term and Dennis Gilbert and Joseph Kahl’s model of social class ladder to identify our family position by using the Dennis gilbert and Joseph Kahl’s model. According to Dennis Gilbert and Joseph Kahl’s they used education, occupation, and income to determined social class. By using their model to determine where my family and I are on the ladder based on education, occupation, and income I would say my family will be in the working class because my mom and dad never finished high school nor went to college. My parent immigrated to the U.S legally from the Secret War, and coming to a country that they do not know how to speak the language or adapt to the cultural it was really hard on them. For my mom, she wanted to continue her education, but my dad and his parent forced my mom to work instead of getting an education. Because of not having a good education she did not get to have a good job that will help support the family. But once my dad and mom started working we were living a really good life with no hardship making into the lower middle class, but once they divorced, my mom was the only one taking care of us eight children which was really hard for her, dropping us to the underclass (lower class). My mom was unemployed for a while until she finally found another job to support us....
The oldest story in the book is the idea that rich kids do better than poor kids in school. As Paul Krugman says it in his article, “Student’s who scored in the bottom fourth on the exam, but came from families whose status put them in the top fourth-what we used to call RDKs, for Rich Dumb Kids, were more likely to finish college than students who scored in the top fourth but whose parents were in the bottom fourth ” (Krugman 591). The more current issue is that the gap has widened between the educational successes in high and low income students, which is exactly what Krugman is arguing in favor towards.
According to Friedman, the gap at the bottom is described as “the wealthiest school districts attract the best teachers, principals, and curriculum planners, along with the most demanding parents and PTAs, while the poorest districts attract the weakest teachers, principals, and parents”(360). So poor communities get poor schools and rich communities get rich and nice schools. The result of this is the poor kids stay poor and the rich kids stay rich. There is no way to the middle class; it 's programmed into them since kindergarten. The belief is that college is too expensive and children need to stay close and help the family out. With free college or vocational school, people who otherwise thought college was unobtainable now see a college education as an option. Many people think lower socioeconomic kids aren 't ready for college because their high school doesn 't prepare them. That 's the point of the vocational schools. Not all people learn the same or want to study the same things. The vocational path offers another way to learn and still be able to make it to the middle
In "Class in America", Gregory Mantsios says that "when politicians and social commentators draw attention to the plight of the poor, they do so in a manner that obscures the class structure and denies any sense of exploitation." Based off our readings, class discussion and films, income inequality is known to be erased or ignore. Our society frowns upon the expression of income in our daily conversations, as it could be seen braggy or a complaint depending on your status of income. Because it's frowned upon to talk about, the topic of income inequality becomes erased or ignored. In addition, income inequality in America's class structure can affect people's ability to reach their American Dream.
Social and economic class is something we as Americans like to push into the back of our minds. Sometimes recognizing our class either socially or economically can almost be crippling. When individuals recognize class, limitations and judgment confront us. Instead, we should know it is important to recognize our class, but not let it define and limit us. In the essay, “Class in America”, Gregory Mantsios, founder and director of the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education at the School of Professional Studies, brings to light the fact that Americans don’t talk about class and class mobility. He describes the classes in extremes, mainly focusing on the very sharp divide between the extremely wealthy and extremely poor. In contrast, George
In Rousseau’s book “A Discourse On Inequality”, he looks into the question of where the general inequality amongst men came from. Inequality exists economically, structurally, amongst different generations, genders, races, and in almost all other areas of society. However, Rousseau considers that there are really two categories of inequality. The first is called Natural/Physical, it occurs as an affect of nature. It includes inequalities of age,, health, bodily strength, and the qualities of the mind and soul. The second may be called Moral/Political inequality, this basically occurs through the consent of men. This consists of the privileges one group may have over another, such as the rich over the poor.
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.
In an education journal, Anyon (“Social”) provides the reader with the concept that there are four different types of schools, working class schools, middle-class schools, affluent professional schools, and executive elite schools, after observing five schools. The working class schools are made up of parents with blue-collar jobs, with less than a third of the fathers being skilled, and the majority of them being semiskilled or unskilled. “Approximately 15 percent of the fathers were unemployed… approximately 15 percent of the families in each school are at or below the federal ‘poverty’ level…the incomes of the majority of the families…are typical of 38.6 percent of the families in the United States” (Anyon, “Social”). In a more recent study conducted by Anyon (“What”, 69), she states that,
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.