Nickel and Dimed Synthesis Paper
When it comes to the topic of social inequality, most of us will readily agree that consumerism and the capitalist society play an important role in social immobility. There are other factors which include education, prejudices, and the abuse of power within the social hierarchy, which make it difficult for the working class to escape poverty. These circumstances are bringing the American Dream to a standstill for millions, who are struggling to simply survive in this country today.
One of the most controversial issues that is said to affect income inequality is the corrupt educational system and what politicians are doing to solve these problems. As discussed in an article, written by journalist Josh Kraushaar, “In most poor, city neighborhoods, students are locked into failing schools, with few options for parents to turn to(Source1),” allowing no hope for the future of America to get a quality education from the start. Quality education should be accessible to everyone, and efforts for wider selection in schools with better teacher quality and strengthened curriculum should be made first priority. If poverty stricken families don’t have a chance to climb out of the hole that they have been thrown into, I think its obvious that they won’t be leaving anytime soon. Kraushaar also states how, “One major culprit for rising tuition is that the government is aggressively subsidizing tuition costs- spurring inflation(Source1),” which makes it difficult for the working class to get past their current social position in finding a better paying job through a higher level of education. These factors work against each other in the way that, you need a good education to get a good paying job and vice versa...
... middle of paper ...
... High inequality usually influences less upward mobility. As the rich become more rich, the poor become even more poor. Segregation leads to slower economic mobility, which causes poor family structure and government spending in communities.
Income inequality remains such a prevalent issue due to the greed and prejudice in the capitalistic society, which pushes the gap between social classes further away from each other causing the working class to remain poor. As this topic remains such a compelling problem for the past 50 years, America must come together to support and help pull those who are stuck in the trap we call poverty. As Pope Francis has said, “Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor.” We must deny ourselves and make sacrifices to those who need it the most.
David J Lynch says that, “ [s]ocieties that manage a narrower gap between rich and poor enjoy longer economic expansions”, however, in the United States the gap between the have and have-nots has widened (source C). “This country is just getting worse and worse and worse … and that is not a recipe for stable growth” (source C). If we do not do something soon our capitalist country will fall. In order for the income inequality gap to lessen to create a more stable economy the government must invest in education and unionize workers and not provide higher taxation for the top one percent.
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.
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
The highest earning fifth of U.S. families earned 59.1% of all income, while the richest earned 88.9% of all wealth. A big gap between the rich and poor is often associated with low social mobility, which contradicts the American ideal of equal opportunity. Levels of income inequality are higher than they have been in almost a century, the top one percent has a share of the national income of over 20 percent (Wilhelm). There are a variety of factors that influence income inequality, a few of which will be discussed in this paper. Rising income inequality is caused by differences in life expectancy, rapidly increases in the incomes of the top 5 percent, social trends, and shifts in the global economy.
has generally lowered, further showing the inequality that exists in our nation. It is usually difficult for the lower classes to achieve financial success because a high income job requires good education which the lower classes lacks because they cannot afford it.
Wealth inequality is a real issue that needs to be fixed. The imbalanced growth of the upper class compared to the middle class is a danger to American society as a whole. The rich becoming richer while the middle class remains the same leads to a power imbalance, with the rich using their money to run the country the way they see fit while the middle class speaks to ears that do not listen. The issue of wealth inequality needs to be fixed by raising taxes on the rich.
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.
America has always seen as the symbolic ideal country of prosperity and equality. This is the reason why people come to America hoping to become successful, but in matter of fact we all have an equal plan field to be successful is not entirely true. For there are social boundaries that keep use limited based upon our own status. Whether we are born of a low class or of a high class the possibility of economic mobility in a sense are predetermined by two factors of social class and success together they both affecting one’s another opportunity of success. In order to achieve success, we must know that it is made up of two main concepts and they are fortune and position. But when a person is limited by their class prohibiting them to achieve success, the point of trying is meaningless. However, there is a way to break the construct that keep groups stuck in the lower-class and is through education. Education gives more opportunities for success to the individuals and since education is very important, culture and the government should focus more directly upon this to reach economic stability. Class standing directly affects economic success in America by limiting a person’s chance of success however; one can overcome by focusing more upon education and culture.
Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore article “Some principles of stratification” informs us how important inequality is. People need to be in different social positions to balance out and make the society function. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels article, “The class struggle,” on the other side, begins with the two social classes; along with how unfair and corrupted the system is benefiting, and damaging the rest of the people. By inheritance and effort, people will always be in different social statuses, but changes will only happen when people unite to make the difference.
The United States has a long, brutal history of social inequality, including but not limited to: racism, sexism, and classism dating all the way back to the European colonizers. When we look at America’s past, we start to notice horrendous instances of injustice and the early formations of modern day social stratification. A way to describe social stratification is “the creation of layers of a population who possess an unequal share of scarce resources” (Loder 2015). Since the resources are not equally distributed, there are some people who have a copious amount of resources and others who barely have enough to survive. Thus rendering social stratification as problematic, because it allows little room for those who were assigned to a lower
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.
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...
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.
We often think to ourselves that the United States is a place with a lot of social mobility and equal opportunities. However, that is ironically not true. According to a graph from a 2005 New York Times series on income mobility, the United States is ranked second to last when it comes to the rate of income improvement or poor families in the last four generations. Professor Kathryn Wilson, associate professor of economics at Kent State University states that: “people like to think of America has the land of opportunities. The irony is that our country actually has less social mobility and more inequality than most developed countries.”
As we prosper through time, inequality is slowly less evident. A lot of people don't realize that although things are improving with time, inequality is still prominent in our society. The people that are failing to realize that there still is inequality, are the fortunate ones. They rise well above the poverty line, and usually live relatively economically sound lives. They are the people who are supplied with our society's benefits.