In this example of political voice, John Oliver (2014) of Last Week Tonight, in the portion of the video shown of the show, he addresses the issue of income inequality in regards to the estate tax in America. Oliver (2014) states that the Estate tax does not apply to most people living in the U.S. due to the tax only applying to about .6 percent of the population in the United States according to the Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service (2013).The people who have to pay the estate tax, are exempt for the first five million dollars. Most importantly, the people who have to pay the “death tax” want to remove the estate tax, according to Oliver (2014). Everybody wants this tax to be removed because they assume the estate tax will
When someone is thinking of a man, what do they think? Strong? Brave? That’s what most people think; in reality that is a very false image. In “Bros Before Hos: The Guy Code,” Michael Kimmel, talks about what it means to be a man and what it takes to be a man in today’s world. Men are pressured into what they “should” be. If they don’t follow certain unwritten rules, which include: not asking for directions, not giving up, not showing fear, or any signs of emotional weakness, such as tears; they are considered less than a man, a wimp. A real man must be aggressive and brave, he must defend his territory: status, family, possessions. Men blindly follow the Guy Code, they believe in order to fit in, they must comply and be part of the pack.
Howard Stern is a radio personality, producer, actor, author, and is the self proclaimed “King of All Media”. Stern is widely known for “The Howard Stern Show”, which was aired on FM radio from 1986 to 2005, until it moved to Sirius XM Radio in 2006. Stern specific style of “shock jock” radio is what makes him so popular, taking him only four years to get his show nationally syndicated in 1986.
Sixteenth Amendment- Authorization of an Income Tax – Progressives thought this would slow down the rising wealth of the richest Americans by using a sliding or progressive scale where the wealthier would pay more into the system. In 1907, Roosevelt supported the tax but it took two years until his Successor, Taft endorsed the constitutional amendment for the tax. The Sixteenth Amendment was finally ratified by the states in 1913. The origin of the income tax came William J Bryan in 1894 to help redistribute wealth and then from Roosevelt and his dedication to reform of corporations. I agree with an income tax to pay for all of our government systems and departments, but I believe there was a misfire with “redistributing wealth.” The redistribution is seen in welfare systems whereby individuals receive money to live. This is meant to be a temporary assistance, but sadly, most that are in the system are stuck due to lack of assistance in learning how to escape poverty. There are a lot of government funded programs, but there is no general help system to help lift people up and stay up, so there continues a cycle of
Remember life's greatest lessons are usually learned at the saddest times. This is exactly what happened in a book called tuesdays with morrie written by mitch albom, it is a story about a college professor who teaches the meaning of life and sociology. He was diagnosed with als, throughout his journey with als he taught many life lessons to mitch. Every tuesday they would come together and talk about life. The book tuesdays with morrie contains the themes, empowerment and wisdom. Empowerment is self determination, and respect no matter who it is directed to. Wisdom is having a mix of knowledge and good judgement. Empowerment plays a big part in this story because morrie tried to stay positive throughout the rest of the time he has to live
Rusty as he was called as a kid, was a chubby, insecure youth who craved but
The “Fairness of Taxation or Wealth Tax” is where taxes are calculated by the net worth of the person or the couple (household). This would be hard for tax collectors to determine each and every component of net worth of a person.
re using it for fast punchlines... I can put a joke together well enough that I
Wilhelm, Heather “The Great Income Inequality Sham” Real Clear Politics. May 2013. Web. 29 Apr 2014.
educational system, which in his words meant “six thousand black guys and him.” In his high
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
Jeopardy Is a Trivia quiz game, the contestants can pick on which topic they wish to answer as well as how difficult the question can be. The more difficult the question the more money the contestants receive for getting the question correct. When the question shows, the first person to ring a buzzer gets to answer. If they are correct, the money adds to their score and they get to choose the next question. If they fail to get the correct answer, or if they forget to answer in the form of a question, the contestant loses that amount and the other contestants get a chance to answer the question.
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...
Everyone is France that is classified as “middle-class” pays the same tax, no matter what if their income is on the lower or higher end, promoting social equality within a certain tax bracket. However, the part of their system that is undemocratic is that the rich pay a much higher percent of their income, and people that have very low income do not pay income tax. The United States’ system is similar on the latter, but they have more broken down tax brackets that have the lower part of “middle class” citizens pay a lower percentage than the higher
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.