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how does poverty influence mental health and wellbeing
how does poverty influence mental health and wellbeing
how does poverty influence mental health and wellbeing
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Income equality is a growing problem and is causing significant problems. The income gap between the rich and poor has been increasing and just recently surpassed levels that our nation has not seen since 1928. There have been studies showing the correlations between inequality and both health and happiness. This reaction paper discusses three articles with different perspectives on income inequality: Income Inequality Is What 's Destroying America (Gilani), U.S. Income Inequality, on Rise for Decades, is Now Highest Since 1928 (Desilver), and How Inequality Hollows Out the Soul (Wilkinsin, Pickett). According to Desilver, the average income of the top 1% of Americans currently is higher than any levels we have seen since 1928. Income inequality …show more content…
For example, it tends to make people withdraw from society, lack trust, and prone to becoming more argumentative. Inequality also makes mental illnesses, of all levels of severity, much more likely. For example, Wilkinsin and Pickett state that three times as many people in America suffer from depression or anxiety problems as in Germany. Schizophrenia was also three times more likely in areas with greater income inequality. They also said that depression was more common in states with a greater income inequality. It is more common for people of lower status to have depression, though depression exists in people of all …show more content…
Tests were done showing that drivers of expensive cars are less likely to yield to pedestrians or other cars. They are also more likely to help themselves to candy intended for children. People of higher status tend to have a greater sense of entitlement and are less generous. People of all statuses become less nice and less happy when living in unequal societies. Their status anxiety also becomes greater. Inequality is bad for mental health and plays a part in our personalities. Gilani’s article was the one that I disagreed with the most. There was only one approach suggested to lower income inequality, in the three articles. Gilani’s suggestion was to create a fair tax, meaning provide progressive flat tax. This would allow rich people to pay the same rate of tax as poor people, even though their economic statuses were completely different. Ronald Reagan was the United States president from 1981- 89. The Economist (“Rich Pickings”) shows a jump in the income share during the end years of his presidency. That was the point in time where he tried to get everyone to pay the same relative amount of taxes, such as one Gilani suggests. He tried to make the tax percentages closer together, but that caused the income inequality to increase even more
Since 1980, America has experienced a quick and drastic change in income distribution between the top 1% and the rest of the country. The graphs below from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities show how tax policies implemented by the Reagan Administration have compounded over the past thirty-three years to create drastic income disparities.
Throughout the years, “ U.S income inequality has been increasing steadily since the 1970s and now has reached levels not seen since 1928” (Source A).
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.
A plethora of research studies exist on the topic of wealth inequality in America. There is no question that the top one percent of earners consume a large portion of wealth in this country while the other 90 percent of earners share the left-overs. Some of the related questions that I found during the course of my research are 1) Why are wealth and income distributions so vastly disproportionate? 2) Can America bridge the wealth gap? 3) If so, how? 4) Has the wealth gap increased over time? 5) Are there public policies that influence wealth inequality? And, 6) Is America’s middle-class growing poor? Those are just a few of the many questions that circulate the discussion on wealth inequality in America. However, the two
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.
The United States has a pervasive issue of income inequality (Volscho & Kelly, 2012). While the wealthy few live in absurd abundance, poor hardworking individuals often cannot afford basic necessities. Such a dynamic is not only an affront to the ideals of equality of opportunity, but also may increase crime as a result of relative deprivation and lack of legitimate opportunities to achieve (Thio, 2010). This essay describes the magnitude of income inequality in the United States, reveals barriers that obscures its magnitude, and suggests a starting point from which corrective measures might develop.
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.
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...
Is Inequality in America really as bad as we perceive it? In America, we have many people discussing back and forth on the issue of inequality. Some people claim that inequality is a rapidly growing phenomenon, separating the rich from the poor. Though, other Americans claim that we’re progressing and departing away from inequality. However, the way in which we choose to perceive inequality is our choice, but we cannot ignore the fact that it exist. Inequality is an issue that has been constantly debated in the past, and will continue to be debated, so long as we do not put an end to it. Inequality is changing our country. The people who enjoy higher social statuses are spending their money with no limitations, whereas the people in the lower
An average American is struggling while the rich people are getting richer. The wealth owned by the top 0.1 percent has increased by 22 percent in 2012 but in 1970 wealth owned by the top 0.1 percent was only 7 percent. The top 0.1 percent includes about 100,000 families with total money of more than $20 million in 2012. The unequal distribution money was all connected to the Great Depression that took place in 1929 to 1939. During 1920’s also known as “Roaring Twenties” people had more ideas and new invention due to industrial revolution and discovery of electricity that led to many new invention that people wanted and bought. The top 0.1 of population earned more what the bottom 42% people earned which led to unequal distribution of the money. Economics Inequality has increased since 1970’s due to many factors. Families who were already rich before in 1900’s their children just inherited the money. This case mostly applied to white families because back in in the day racism played a big factor for getting jobs. Another reason is that the top 25 percent are well paid government workers, politician, entrepreneurs, or have a really good investment in stocks. In United States, people favors rich people over poor so the rich people have more opportunities and a better future than a poor and that’s the reason why economics inequality has increased over
Income inequality has been a noticeable problem for the past thirty years within the United States of America. There has been great speculation about why the gap between the rich and the poor has widened over time, yet many American citizens seem to put the blame on the United States government. Perhaps there is some truth to that, but it should also be understood that public opinion isn’t always correct. The United States government has the ability to narrow the wealth gap and has done so through particular benefits and policies they have put forward.
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.
Income inequality has been growing for decades. Over the last thirty years, the wages of the top one percent have increased by one hundred and fifty-four percent, while the bottom ninety percent has seen increase of only seventeen percent. “As the rungs of the economic ladder move further and further apart, conventional wisdom says that it will be much more difficult to climb them” (Roberts). As problems and situations build up against the middle class and the poor, the chances for upward mobility, the American Dream, will
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.