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The American dream affects
Positive and negative effects of the american dream
Effect of income inequality in us
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About one-fourth of the nation's wealth is detained by the top one percent of its people; whereby eroding the self-identity it was built on and slowly destroying the ideal of the "American Dream." As an ideal, individually, it exists; however, as a reality, statistics show that our political and economical situation is "for the 1%" instead of "for the people." Furthermore, it is not only our American self-identity that is being deprived; this rut-like state and growing national debt is caused by our own pragmatism. What is the solution you may ask, to this income equality? Look out for the "other guy," because what is good for the part is good for the whole. In Joseph Stiglitz's article in Vanity Fair, "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%," demography is used to support the proof of the growing wage gap in America. For example Stiglitz recognizes in today's society, " In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control 40 percent." This, in comparison to the same statistic 25 years prior, corresponds as such: 12 percent and 33 percent. Slighting the country's good name, he states that "America lags behind any country in the old, ossified Europe that President Bush used to deride." We are counterparts with the oligarchy of Russia and Iran in inequality; growing inequality brings the promotion of shrinking …show more content…
The "American Dream" was built on this principle, though with recent economical statistics being as they are, this ideal or perception seems limited. You need money to make money in most situations therefore the poor have a hard time moving up in the world in an economically based society. However, no matter the hardship, we as Americans have seen and been through worse: hope should never leave our vocabulary. In fact, we need hope the most in times of strain; without hope there is no drive and without drive it is assumed that no change will
3. What are the effects of this wealth inequality in the US and what causes it, as well as some possible solutions and their ramifications, will all be discussed and answered below. There has always been a wealth gap between the richest and poorest in society. However, in the past decade, the wealth gap between the richest and poorest citizens in the US has been growing rapidly. In the 70s and 80s, the wealth and income growth rate for both poor and rich people were similar, however, between the years 2009 and 2012 the top 1% income increased 31% while for the bottom 20%, their income actually dropped and for the vast majority of Americans, the average yearly income only increased by 0.4% [4].
The United States of America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. Where any man, regardless of background and culture can come and create his own success. What is commonly known as the american dream. But is this statement that the U.S was built on really true? Or is this the fecond put on to draw in the the hungry and hopeful? Specifically talking about the immigrants that suffer from a low standard of living. A rent payment, the blinking fuel light in the car, the grocery list, all of these are everyday things one must deal with in the U.S. today. But what happens when there is not enough moeney from one job to cover and finance one or many of these multiple neccessities?
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
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.
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...
Scarborough, Joe. “Top 1% Took 95% of Gains Since 2009.” Tampa Bay Times. January 21, 2014. Web. March 11, 2014. In this article the authors shows how income inequality has been changing over the time. He also tries to emphasize how large this gap has become by comparing income and taxation of the top 1% with the rest of the nation.
Income inequality in the United States, as of 2007, has reached levels not seen since 1928. In 1928, the top one percent received nearly 24% of all income within the United States (Volscho & Kelly, 2012). This percentage fell to nearly nine percent in 1975, but has risen to 23.5% as of 2007 (Volscho & Kelly, 2012). Meanwhile, in 2007 (see
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
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)?
When I was growing up, I often reflected on what my chances of success would be later on in life. I always wondered if I would have the same opportunity to make as much money as top richest 1 percent of Americans who hold 34 percent of the total national wealth.(Mantsios 284) These were the rich and successful people I had seen in movies or on television that made billions of dollars a year. I was raised in a middle class family and my parents from the beginning did everything in their power they could to provide me with an opportunity for success. My father, who came from a lower class family, dropped out of college after his sophomore year and began working in construction. When my mother became pregnant with me, my dad decided he would launch his own construction business. I have witnessed first hand how hard he works each day to make the living he does, working from dawn till dusk, 6 days a week. My father is good at what he does but in contrast to the top one percent of Americans, his annual salary (along with the other 99 percent’s) is incomparable pocket change to them. Although my father began with nothing and was able to work his way up and out of the class he began in I still wondered why he was not able to make as much, or even half, in a lifetime as some elite Americans make in a month. It seemed crazy to me that the majority of wealth in America is concentrated within a group of a few, elite Americans that make hundreds of times more than what the rest of the country’s citizens do. I began to ponder the questions: Does everyone in America have an equal opportunity to succeed?...If not, then why? Do the other 99 percent not work hard enough?. I whole-heartedly believe that the amount of effort an individual puts int...
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 “American Dream” consists of all U.S citizens having the opportunity to obtain success and prosperity through hard work and determination, but, in a capitalistic economy such as the United States the “American Dream” is merely impossible. Low wages are masked as starting points, taught to eventually pay off in the form of small raises or promotions. Competition to obtain unequally shared resources, is used to define an individual’s extent of initiative. In reality, these are all concepts used by the wealthy to deter the poor working class from obtaining upward mobility. Middle class America, the key factor in helping the wealthy stay wealthy, have adapted to these beliefs and concepts, created to keep them far behind. Conflict theorist
“If the rights and perquisites of different positions in a society must be unequal, then the society must be stratified, because that is precisely what stratification means” (pg. 243 Davis and Moore). The harsh reality that now twenty-five percent of the nations income and forty percent of the nations wealth is solely occupied by 1% of the population truly demonstrates stratification our society. Wealth is the total value of all assets and income is received on a regular basis. The fact that almost half of the nations wealth is occupied by only one percent of the population is mind-bogging. One may be wondering how such trends occur and according to Davis and Moore this is a result of social stratification.
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.