Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Essay on income inequality solutions
Income inequality research
Essay on income inequality solutions
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Essay on income inequality solutions
Marc Priester and Aaron Mendelson say that income inequality has been increasing for the last 30 years. The definition of income inequality, “…refers to the extent to which income is distributed in an uneven manner among a population” (Priester and Mendelson). In the United States, income inequality is a gap between the rich and poor (Priester and Mendelson). Income inequality has several views that include the Conservative, Liberal, and my views. The Conservatives aim to give the poor the opportunities to reach the wealthy’s economic bar, instead of taxing the rich more (Benac). Some sources say that income inequality is not the problem, but rather the upward mobility, the opportunity to move to a higher economic class, is the problem (Pethokoukis and "Upward Mobility Definition"). Conservatives want to increase the upward mobility by people getting an education and tax reform to increase jobs and decrease wage stagnation (Garry). Timothy Noah says, “The way out is to reject the assumption that government’s purpose is to redress inequalities of income.” For the most part, Conservatives do not have a lot of effort being put in to fixing income inequality. …show more content…
Liberals would, for example, spend money on infrastructure to create jobs (Luhbi). Defeating income equality also includes raising taxes, more government spending, and more business (Garry). Taking away from the rich to give to the poor, by taxation, is a way that the Liberals would try to fix the problem (Prager). Another way the Liberals want to help is by raising the minimum wage (Garry). However, there are arguments that bigger government getting involved has, in fact, widened the income inequality
They are sick and tired of conservatives telling them that the poor are poor because they don't work hard enough. They are sick and tired of being criticized for caring about the little guy. Liberals focus on the bad side of human nature, and look to the government to protect us from it. They see the fragility of the human spirit and overwhelming outside factors as the determining reason why people struggle. They see those who are born with better looks, more intelligence, more athletic skills, more creative skills, or more money as having an unfair advantage in life.
3. What are the effects of this wealth inequality in the US and what causes it, as well as some possible solutions and their ramifications, will all be discussed and answered below. There has always been a wealth gap between the richest and poorest in society. However, in the past decade, the wealth gap between the richest and poorest citizens in the US has been growing rapidly. In the 70s and 80s, the wealth and income growth rate for both poor and rich people were similar, however, between the years 2009 and 2012 the top 1% income increased 31% while for the bottom 20%, their income actually dropped and for the vast majority of Americans, the average yearly income only increased by 0.4% [4].
In the article, “Confronting Inequality” by Paul Krugman compares income inequality from the 1960s to the inequality that America society face today. Most commonly is seen the wealth gap between the rich and the poor are difference between their incomes. He gives the reason why he and America should care about the rising inequality. One of his arguments is the economic need to progress for lower or middle class families and the need for seeking more equal of income. Krugman has many quotes from people have a big impact on America help argue his point about inequality. “High inequality, which has turned us into a nation with a much weakened middle class, has a corrosive effect on social relations and politics, one that has become ever more
Wealth inequality and income inequality are often mistaken as the same thing. Income inequality is the difference of yearly salary throughout the population.1 Wealth inequality is the difference of all assets within a population.2 The United States has a high degree of wealth distribution between rich and poor than any other majorly developed nation.3
Wilhelm, Heather “The Great Income Inequality Sham” Real Clear Politics. May 2013. Web. 29 Apr 2014.
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...
Income inequality not only harms us fiscally, but also affects our mental and physical wellbeing; therefore, it is important to identify the right ways to control wealth distribution among people.
Income inequality in the United States, as of 2007, has reached levels not seen since 1928. In 1928, the top one percent received nearly 24% of all income within the United States (Volscho & Kelly, 2012). This percentage fell to nearly nine percent in 1975, but has risen to 23.5% as of 2007 (Volscho & Kelly, 2012). Meanwhile, in 2007 (see
Inequality as previously mentioned is a subject that gets debated when brought up and in any debate there is two sides. In class we have discussed both side of the story of inequality, and it has give me a better perspectives of income inequality. When discussion income inequality, we brought up the concept of the economic pie in which states that the economic pie is a reference to the way income gets distributed among the lower, middle, and higher class of America. So the concept of the economic pie states that the rich is getting richer, so they are
Income inequality has affected American citizens ever since the American Dream came to existence. The American Dream is centered around the concept of working hard and earning enough money to support a family, own a home, send children to college, and invest for retirement. Economic gains in income are one of the only possible ways to achieve enough wealth to fulfill the dream. Unfortunately, many people cannot achieve this dream due to low income. Income inequality refers to the uneven distribution of income and wealth between the social classes of American citizens. The United States has often experienced a rise in inequality as the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, increasing the unstable gap between the two classes. The income gap in America has been increasing steadily since the late 1970’s, and has now reached historic highs not seen since the 1920’s (Desilver). UC Berkeley economics professor, Emmanuel Saez conducted extensive research on past and present income inequality statistics and published them in his report “Striking it Richer.” Saez claims that changes in technology, tax policies, labor unions, corporate benefits, and social norms have caused income inequality. He stands to advocate a change in American economic policies that will help close this inequality gap and considers institutional and tax reforms that should be developed to counter it. Although Saez’s provides legitimate causes of income inequality, I highly disagree with the thought of making changes to end income inequality. In any diverse economic environment, income inequality will exist due to the rise of some economically successful people and the further development of factors that push people into poverty. I believe income inequality e...
“We all want the same things in life. We want freedom; we want the chance for prosperity; we want as few people suffering as possible; we want healthy children; we want to have crime free streets. The argument is how to achieve them.” – Rush Limbaugh. There’s two different views and beliefs whenever policies are involved. In this situation, conservative and liberal views take on the role how to solve American’s number one issue, social welfare.
The rich will stay rich or become richer as they benefit from certain situations. The poor will not always benefit from the same situations as the rich and actually may suffer making inequality just to benefit the least well off. The goal for permitting inequalities of wealth would be to improve the poor and only to permit inequalities if it was helpful to the poor. According to the fourth lecture, “Liberals will say if permitting inequalities in wealth and income brings up the level of well being of the poorest of the poor, then the inequality is permissible. Then that’s a kind inequality that’s to everyone’s benefit to those doing better, but the inequality is the benefit of the least well off in society because in the scenario the poorest of the poor do better.” The reason behind that is the rich will always be okay in their wealth and class, but the poor may not always be as lucky so it essential to create a benefit for the poorest of people because if the poor succeed and do better, than everyone is doing
For a long while now there has been much debate on which political philosophy, utilitarianism, liberalism, or libertarianism, has the best approach to income inequality. Before I make a decision about which I believe has the correct approach, we must first define each philosophy and what it stands for. According to Mankiw’s Principles of Microeconomics, Utilitarianism is “the political philosophy according to which the government should choose policies to maximize the total utility of everyone in society.” This philosophy explains that the tradeoff between the rich and the poor will have an overall good effect on the total utility of everyone. It basically means that the poor can benefit from taxing the rich. As Mankiw explains, if you give
Wealth inequality is the uneven distribution of resources in a given state or population, which can also be called the wealth gap. The sum of one’s total assets excluding the liabilities equates the person’s wealth also known as the net worth. Investments, residents, cash, real estates and everything owned by an individual are their assets.In reality, the United States is among the richest countries in the world, though a few people creating a major gap between the richest, the middle class and the poor control most of its wealth. For more than a quarter of a century, only the rich American families have shown an increase to their net worth.Thisis a worrying fact for the less fortunate in the country and calls for assessment (Baranoff, 2015).
Income inequality is a big problem in the United States because the top, wealthiest American saw huge increases in their incomes, which the rest had their incomes go down. Bottom people do not have the same amount of money and the opportunity to move up the social ladder as the rich people do. In order to reduce income inequality, the government needs to tax the rich people more, and give poor people more money and more social services - education, food subsidies, health care.