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income inequality abstract
income inequality abstract
income inequality abstract
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For generations there has been those who are handed their life with little to no struggle, and there are also those who continue to work and struggle to no avail. For this paper, I’ve chosen to research and write about what generates the correlation and connections between those living in poor conditions and income inequality. Income inequality is described as the uneven distribution of money or wealth throughout a population. In America we can observe this through the gap between the rich and the poor. Those that are rich continue to get richer, while those that are poor continue to get poorer. This gap between the rich and the poor is quickly swelling. Not only is this bad for the economy, but among other issues that it produces, it creates impediments for certain families and their ability to achieve proper housing. Everywhere around us, there are families with parents who work long constant hours, yet they are still hardly able to make ends meet. These struggling families are often the ones living in barely inhabitable conditions, which most often occurs in questionable neighborhoods. Ultimately, we need others to notice that there is a direct correlation between income inequality and access to quality housing, where those who fall …show more content…
They also should pursue innovative strategies such as insisting that federal transportation money and housing near public transit are inseparable...Local elected officials must ensure that rental homes can actually be built by removing barriers to new construction and embracing density. Together, developers and policymakers must find ways to reduce costs” (Narasimhan 10-12). All this together is just a way to reduce the cost of housing, and make better housing more
The connection between poor living conditions, low income families, and inequality of varying groups go hand in hand when dealing with poverty as discussed in Evicted by Matthew Desmond. These issues are often swept under the rug for those not immersed in the situation and can even be unknown. There is gender inequality which can affect every aspect of life, including dwelling. There is also racial inequality which also renders the quality of life. Both themes have a deeper meaning and are connected at the source of poor education and job discrimination.
Poverty in America is a very complex issue that can be looked at from many directions. There are a plethora of statistics and theories about poverty in America that can be confusing and at times contradicting. It is important to objectively view statistics to gain a better understanding of poverty and to wade through the stereotypes and the haze of cultural views that can misrepresent the situation.The official poverty line in America begins with a person making at or below $12,060. To calculate the poverty line for a family, an additional $4,180 is added to the base of $12,060 for each additional member(“Federal Poverty Level Guidelines”). According to the last U.S. census, over 45 million or 14.5% of Americans are at or below the poverty line(Worstall). At this level, the U.S. poverty level has not changed much from the 1970s when the government began a “War on Poverty.” However,
In the Pulitzer prize-winning novel Evicted, sociologist Matthew Desmond follows eight families as he exposes how the lack of affordable housing perpetuates a state of poverty. He even goes so far as to assert that it is eviction that is a cause of poverty, not the other way around (Desmond 229). While this latter argument is as engrossing and it is striking, analyzing it with justice is simply not possible within the scope of this paper. Nevertheless, it is these two factors—inescapable poverty and eviction—that engender an unrelenting condition of financial, emotional, and communal instability, effectively hindering any chance of upward mobility.
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.
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
Anna Quindlen, a celebrated novelist and winner of a Pulitzer Prize, writes “Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Kids.” The essay gives a window into life for impoverished citizens in our country and the how families struggle to survive in this system. Families are struggling just to survive with the little government assistance they receive. The quality and space in a shelter or even government provided living is atrocious and, to be frank, borderline unlivable. Quindlen describes a family of six cramped into a single bedroom, an inexcusable and terrible way to live and yet better than nothing at all (332). Children of families that have to live in situations like this grow up not knowing stability or security. Quindlen, passing on the sentiments of the children who live in these housings: “The older kids can’t wait to get out of this one” and “He’s humiliated, living here” (332). These kids are stricken by poverty and want nothing more than to have their own
In order to be radical about poverty, we need to understand the difference between wealth and income. Income is a transfer of money by working or by gifts. On the other hand, wealth is more of a total of accumulated assets that has been stored for a period of time (Conley, pg. 253). Wealth is not distributed equally among the public. (NCH, 2016, http://nationalhomeless.org/about-homelessness/). Declining wages has also caused a lot of stress and increase people’s inability to pay for their housing or other needs. If there are affordable housing, it’s usually in an unsafe and polluted environment or it’s extremely overcrowded that people have a higher chance of being homeless or inadequate housing arrangements than getting their applications accepted (Why Are People Homeless Research, 2016, NCH). Also, privatizing housing will increase the accumulation of wealth of the power elite or those that own property and lands by their pricing in rents. Most people go through depression because of loss of home, jobs, or a sense of self. Often times, the lack education about health and they don’t receive adequate support for medical care if they are homelessness. Poverty is also treated as a criminal offence and if people were to ask for public assistance, they have to prove their eligibility. If they have a criminal record, they are
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.
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.
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.
While the the 1%, are secured, no one is addressing the rest of the people. As the economy flourishes, housing, higher education and health care, and child care increases with it to the point where 30 percent of a person’s income goes towards housing. People are finding it impossible to purchase a house with their middle class incomes. People begin to fall out of the once stable middle class because too much is needed to be sacrificed in order to live in a stable home. In the shrinking middle class, “40% or more of the residents live below the poverty
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...
The housing in Los Angeles is not enough for the population and the current policies have not focussed of the solution to these problems (Varady et al., 2005). Providing temporally housing and short-term jobs to the chronically homeless people does not reduce the number of homeless people in the city but only covers the problem for a while. Acting to the urgent of those without shelter for long is important but solving the root to the problem is what needs to be done. The government of the United States pays private landlords rent for the sake of the enlisted Section 8 beneficiaries but most of the house owners are not in full support of this move. Most of them prefer to rent their houses at the market rate. There are other more homeless people who have not benefited from this policy because they do not qualify yet they still have shelter. The trend in the rent is a cause for alarm and the number of homeless people will increase as soon as more are unable to afford rent and face evictions. The government continues to subsidise rent through Section 8 policy but the society should take up the challenge of contributing towards reducing homelessness. Inadequate employment has forced the poor people out of houses and the society is expected to do their social duty in respect to the homeless in the
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.