Social Class In America By Gregory Mantsios

Many people born in America see success as being able to afford anything, having a well paying job, or being able to live comfortably. The prospect that hard work, and not the circumstances you were born into is a pathway into becoming successful. However an unfortunate reality is that between people born from families in the upper and lower ends of the income spectrum, not everyone is on equal footing. A lack of upward mobility caused by the increasing gap in wealth distribution is one of the main reasons to blame. The wealth disparity has caused a cycle where wealthier parents are able to invest early on in their children, and in turn those children tend to follow in their parent’s success. A redistribution of wealth via a Universal Basic

The difference in wealth determines where a family lives, the quality of connections they have, their education, and what they do for a living. From “Class in America” by Gregory Mantsios:
In all areas of health, poor people do not share the same life chances as those in the social class above them. Furthermore low income correlates with a lower quality of treatment for illness and disease.(389.2)
Mantsios gives examples by comparing individuals who come from different economic backgrounds. He believes people who are born into the lower class have less opportunities than people born into the upper class, particularly due to the circumstances that they are born into. He also mentions that there’s a correlation between living a healthy life and money, with the wealthier people being able to afford a higher standard of living than the poor. Barbara Ehrenreich gives first hand experience on what it is like to be at the bottom of the working class. In “Serving in Florida,” Ehrenreich describes the socio economic challenges the bottom classes face, with little to no upward mobility and long tiring hours. She went undercover in hopes to show the middle and upper classes that working at the bottom did not pay enough to live

This gap increases the older the child becomes.
A solution that has been proposed before to reduce wealth inequality is to have a Universal Basic Income. UBI is a model where the government provides all citizens of a country with the basic income needed for them to survive with, regardless of their background and circumstances. According to BIEN (Basic Income Earth Network), the five defining points of UBI are:
Periodic: UBI is given in regular intervals, such as a month by month basis
Cash payment: paid as funds, so the receiver can decide what to spend it on, rather than receiving food stamps or