Ranking at number nine on the current Forbes Top Ten Richest Americans with 33.7 billion dollars, whose last name isn’t Trump: Jim Walton. Walton happens to be a part of the one percent of Americans with the whopping ninety-nine percent of us fellow Americans in their pockets. Briefly put; that miniscule one percent has a grasp on this country, taking ownership of most private and managerial wealth, leaving only eleven percent of America’s wealth to the bottom feeders of America, wage and salary workers. Bear in mind that the federal minimum wage is only seven dollars and twenty-five cents, and has not nationally raised since 2009. The rapid gains achieved by the upper class during the past century has created inequality in the social …show more content…
Barbara finds away to elaborate on the general idea of workers vs. the big cheese, or the super affluent few of Americans. Her overall focal point happens to be the super rich inhabitants within the states, and she supports the main idea through four coherent details. Ehrenreich’s primary defense is stated as “A great deal of the wealth at the top is built on the low-wage labor of the poor”. Multiple examples are greatly utilized; one expressing how top-notch company owners’ companies are continuously kept alive by their minimum wage working employees. The author continues to adhere her main idea with another fact of how the financial industry makes money off of the average citizen effortlessly; not one bit of labor involved in the process. Ehrenreich finds a way to pinpoint an area of truth within each and every type of extremely wealthy citizens; stating, “The overclass bids up the price of goods that ordinary also need—housing, for example”. The paper is thoroughly concluded on the author’s strongest supporting detail, discussing how wealth controls the favor of political processes including …show more content…
My agreement with Chris Rock’s bold and distinctive synopsis on the unknown irrelevance of a wealthy man’s perks, a spot on assumption us citizens should be aware of. In my opinion, most of our rage should be substantially aimed at the thirty-two percent of the rich population that have inherited their fortune. The other sixty-eight percent of assumed evildoers were also once struggling in the lower and middle classes before their rise in fortune. If only the 1.2 million homeless school-enrolled children of America knew that spoiled rotten celebrities like Avril Lavigne, Drew Barrymore, and even daughter of multi-million dollar rock legend Kelly Osbourne were opposed at the thought of school and willingly dropped out. To think that working their butts off in unwelcoming vibes of a classroom is only an utter waste of in the eyes of their favorite musicians, actors, and moguls. Why should these famous Americans get generously paid for products, appearances, or wearing their favorite brand of clothing while we scrub and scrape to make ends
According to a 1997 report of the National Coalition for the Homeless, “nearly one-fifth of all homeless people are employed in full or part-time jobs”. In the book Nickel and Dimed, On Not Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich, the author goes undercover in order to investigate and experience first-hand how life is for America’s “working poor”. The “working poor” are defined as individuals who have a full-time job, sometimes more than one, but still cannot afford the basics of shelter, food and adequate healthcare. As one can imagine, this led to many public health concerns. In each of the three locations visited, Ehrenreich realizes that for many, “getting by” in America can sometimes be a daunting task.
Time and time again we hear politicians and office holders preach the need for a powerful middle-class. You may then be surprised to hear that “about 82% of America’s net worth belongs to the top 20%, the next 80% of people only own about 18% of America’s wealth” (UCSC). Some may argue that this disproportion is the beauty of capitalism, the chance to create an empire. I argue that the proportions are simply unfair. Why is it that “ the average CEO makes 350X as much as his/her employee” (UCSC)?
You know the economy is bad when a person is working 40 hours a week and they are still not making enough to get by and living in poverty. When there are more foreclosed and vacant homes, but an increase in the opening of motels and efficiencies. And recent college graduates are settling for mediocre jobs that do not require much skill. Yet, we brainwash them to obtain an education to avoid such occurrences. Who is to blame for the misfortune of such a vast amount of people? This is one of the questions Barbara Ehrenreich sought to answer as she went undercover to see if the wages the unskilled earn in certain jobs are livable.
Sklar, Holly. “The Growing Gulf Between the Rich and the Rest of Us”. They Say I Say. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, Russel Durst. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. Print.
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
Wealth and Democracy clearly illustrates and emphasizes the importance of Democracy being endangered. The author Kevin Phillips, America’s leading political analyst since 1968 and a graduate of Harvard Law School appears very informed and credible. Wealth and Democracy outlines and explains the politics of the second half of the 20th century. In this book Phillips primarily explores how the rich and politically powerful often work together to create and continue to take advantages at the expense of the national interest, the middle class, and the lower class. The book contains several interesting chapters on history and an analysis of present-day America that reveals the dangerous politics that go with the concentration of wealth. Finally, Phillips gives warnings of new radicalism and argues that the corruptions of wealth and power are destructing the United States. Wealth and Democracy examines the history of Britain and other leading world economic powers to point out the symptoms that signaled their declines such as speculative finance, increasing international debt, record wealth, income and unsatisfying politics. Many of the signs that led to the decline of Britain were noticeable signs in America as it entered the twenty-first century. One might be surprised at the way Phillips emphasizes the despiteful practices of the rich considering his republican background. However, due to Phillips increased knowledge of the GOP (Grand Old Party; the first Republicans) He has concluded Republicans economic polices and biases of the 1990s and early 2000s betray the legacy of who He considers the two greatest Republican presidents, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.
What seems to go unnoticed by many Americans is the evident and growing wealth gap. According to Pew Research Center, the current U.S. income is at its highest since 1928. This large dispersion of wealth can be attributed by the “fall [of the] routine producers” (Reich). Where jobs that were once attainable during the 70s are declining due to advancing technology and corporations finding workers in poor countries who are willing to work at half the cost of the routine producers. What also drives this wealth gap is the power of corporations in an age of extravagant consumerism. Through media, the demand to buy what we want is unavoidable. Corporations are able to gain revenue while people go unemployed because of America’s vast opportunities to buy what we want when we want it.
Economic inequality and injustice come in the same hand. Poor people are more likely to experience inequality and injustice. The negative assumptions of poor people are created by the media and politicians. Promoting economic justice by offering people living in poverty some form of social support. Barbara Ehrenreich found in her experiment the workforce for low-wage was difficult. Conley talks about the different types of social inequalities and how they have been unsuccessful.
The historical context of inequality in the United States can be can be traced back to the American South and the times of the Civil War. The slave trade, Emancipation Proclamation and 13th Amendment largely contribute to the inequality presented of the African American population.
“To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else”.(221) Barbara Ehrenreich in her book Nickel and Dimed explored life as a low wage earner by working several “unskilled” jobs in different areas of the country and attempted to live off the wages she earned. She undertakes many noble trades, working in low wage and underappreciated jobs while trying to figure out how the people of this country do it every day. She also looks to examine the functional and conflict theories of stratification as they relate to the low wage jobs she pursues. The goal of Barbara was to find if she would be able to live off the money
With each class comes a certain level in financial standing, the lower class having the lowest income and the upper class having the highest income. According to Mantsios’ “Class in America” the wealthiest one percent of the American population hold thirty-four percent of the total national wealth and while this is going on nearly thirty-seven million Americans across the nation live in unrelenting poverty (Mantsios 284-6). There is a clear difference in the way that these two groups of people live, one is extreme poverty and the other extremely
Even though the American Revolution constituted represented a tremendous strike against the old social order, its founding ideals could not be realized within the socioeconomic framework that existed in colonial America.
The richest people who seem to keep getting richer have been walking into their wealth since the day they have been born. It has been proven by how the companies have been popping up around the world, how the companies are being bribed by governors trying to make their state seem more economically powerful. “Philips, Sony, and Toyota factories are popping up all over—to the self congratulatory applause of the nation’s governors and mayors, who have lured them with promises of tax abatements and new sewers, among other amenities.” (Paragraph 17) People are born into their jobs, and are doomed for their economic boats. IN other countries such as China, it has been proven that the families with the moneys are the ones with the money, are the ones with the economic power. “Many wealthy Chinese and western residents moved their money abroad and some actually left the colony. By 1971, the Cultural Revolution in China had ended in failure and conditions in Hong Kong calmed,” (Lannom) such as Gloria Lannom states, yet it took a while for Hong Kong to rebuild its economic standings because of this
In American society, there is a large disparity of wealth between the rich and the poor. This wealth disparity has far reaching effects into the areas of politics, education, culture, and more. By using their wealth to dominate politics, education, and culture, the rich perpetuate the exclusion of the poor into the substandard position of poverty.
Money is an essential part of life where every people can satisfy whatever they need and every person in America has a chance to find a job. However, some of the people in the country wanted to go on with their life freely by being a part of a welfare. Furthermore, distribution of wealth is a huge demand of every citizen. Everyone today is trying to look down for every people in the lower class, as they did not give any benefit to the country, waiting for the benefits that they will receive from the government. For instance, when most lower class people have gone through a financial crisis due to overspending, insufficient fund or pay for their work to support themselves and/or their family. The example shows that lower class people made the economy of the country unstable, however, the middle class and the higher class is at fault as well. Furthermore, even though the benefit of that the lower class received is from the middle class, the middle class as well benefits from the higher class. To sum up, every class is at fault towards giving the country’s economy a positive