Income Inequality and Standard of Living in the United States

Income Inequality and Standard of Living in the United States

A characteristic of man that separates him from the majority of the animal world is his organization of social and economic systems. Man, however, retains traits of his evolutionary ancestors in the form of self-preservation and greediness. While many political, economic, and social systems try to eradicate this form of natural selection, capitalism and related economic structures preserve social inequality in many forms. Historically, this preservation of financial inequality has achieved a higher standard of living generally than systems originally formed and employed to achieve just that.

There are specific economic factors of capitalism that enables it to make life more civilized and beneficial for its population. By definition, capitalism is an economic system controlled chiefly by individuals and private companies instead of by the government. Inequality is based by mostly two things, a person’s home and workplace. People are free to decide how they will earn and spend their income. Companies may choose which goods and services to produce and how much to charge for them based on the wants, or demand of the people. This regulates the amount and kind of products produced to accommodate the population. Because of this emphasis on economic individual freedom to become the wealthiest of one’s nation, many inequalities form in the distribution of wealth.

As many citizens are able to acquire their needs to survive and eventually purchase luxuries, some citizens are not able to support their own existence and eventually die of cold, starvation, or other such causes. “Ronald Reagan explained that the United States has an abundance of food, but the hungry are too ignorant to know where to get it” (Kodras 67) Although this is viewed by many as inhumane, capitalist societies achieve a higher standard of living than other socialist and communist societies. This also provides motivation for the unemployed to find jobs, as they are not supported by others in a capitalist society. Historically, communist societies achieved less unbalanced financial inequality, but the standard of living was lower than that of capitalist societies. The complexity of human behavior and the vastness of one society is too great for human planners to address. Although one may have had a job for sometime, he/she may still ...

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... of wedlock, and the increasing age at first marriage have led to a shift away from married-couple households and toward single-parent and non-family households, which typically have lower incomes.

There is so much to talk about when we speak of inequality. It is such a broad topic that it would be hard to touch on all of the bases that define it. A person’s home and income is what differentiates the strong from the weak in today’s society whether it deals with politics or the socialization of the masses. This allows for the geographical structuring of cities, economies, social classes in general. People will always move to places where they feel most accepted and that is usually being amongst there family, friends, and race no matter what economical position these people are in. This also creates a sense of segregation do to the fact that people don’t socialize enough on a personal level far enough outside their racial bloodlines or boundaries. There will always be segregation and inequality in society as long as people fail to realize that no person’s life is worth more than the next and that somewhere down the line we are all related have something in common with one another.