Wealth Inequality Essay

705 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: What is the gap between the rich and the poor

Have you ever wondered about the wealth gap between the rich and the poor, and what it has to do with you? I have and I can honestly say with my work experience that I would fit somewhere safely in between the rich and the poor because I am not able to spend money like it is going out of style but I can spend it to be able to survive, to provide a roof over my head, clothes on my back and food in my stomach. Although I am a part of what is now called Generation X and after all the generations before, Generation X has not benefited at all from any part of the wealth gap. I am not rich and I am not poor but not everyone can say the same. As the cost of living goes up our generation falls to the feet of the rich. Wealth inequality can be described as the unequal distribution of assets within a population. The United States exhibits wider disparities of …show more content…

These factor into your net worth whether you are just an individual or family’s wealth. As I do more and more research on this subject I find that the biggest gap doesn’t come from gender or race it comes from the generation gap. The gap between the old and the young seems to have the most effect on the gap because it is claimed that the older generation has less debt and more investments. The young hasn’t worked as long as the old so they have not built up a cushion, it is called, in order to fall back on when there is a financial shock. If young people want to increase their chances of being wealthy, one strategy is to emulate the behavior of older people: keeping an emergency fund, paying down debt, avoiding high-cost credit, and putting money into higher-returning investments (Swanson, 2015). But let’s be honest it is going to be very hard to do this especially for a family living paycheck to paycheck, so how will we ever

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Class In America By Gregory Mantsios

    607 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to Gregory Mantsios many American people believed that the classes in the United States were irrelevant, that we equally reside(ed) in a middle class nation, that we were all getting richer, and that everyone has an opportunity to succeed in life. But what many believed, was far from the truth. In reality the middle class of the United States receives a very small amount of the nation's wealth, and sixty percent of America's population receives less than 6 percent of the nation's wealth, while the top 1 percent of the American population receives 34 percent of the total national wealth. In the article Class in America ( 2009), written by Gregory Mantsios informs us that there are some huge differences that exist between the classes of America, especially the wealthy and the poor. After

    Read More

  • Wealth Inequality in the US with Sociological Viewpoints

    1100 Words  | 3 Pages

    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 question is, is wealth gap bad? Is a growing or extreme wealth gap unhealthy for the economy and social stability or is it a necessary part of it.

    Read More

  • A Classless Society In Mantsios's Class In America

    1410 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Andrew Carnegie's The Gospel Of Wealth

    911 Words  | 2 Pages

    Wealth inequality did not always exist in human life. In fact, “Human life have not only been changed, but revolutionized, within the past hundred years” (Carnegie 1). There used to be

    Read More

  • Income Inequality in the United States

    795 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Wealth Inequality In America Essay

    1440 Words  | 3 Pages

    A plethora of research studies exist on the topic of wealth inequality in America. There is no question that the top one percent of earners consume a large portion of wealth in this country while the other 90 percent of earners share the left-overs. Some of the related questions that I found during the course of my research are 1) Why are wealth and income distributions so vastly disproportionate? 2) Can America bridge the wealth gap? 3) If so, how? 4) Has the wealth gap increased over time? 5) Are there public policies that influence wealth inequality? And, 6) Is America’s middle-class growing poor? Those are just a few of the many questions that circulate the discussion on wealth inequality in America. However, the two

    Read More

  • Inequality And Wealth Inequality

    713 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Income Inequality In The United States Essay

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Wealth Inequality In America Essay

    1109 Words  | 3 Pages

    Why are so a large number of people that beg for money, sitting on the streets, looking for food 's some sort? It is not day-to-day that we consider situations like this, but it is out there constantly without all of us realizing it. A number of states have poverty 's more issues than others, but it is sad to think about how plenty of people are actually considered to be in poverty. This is an inequality concerning me a lot, and is getting worse daily. Poverty in the United States relates to people whose annual household earnings are less than a poverty line set by the United States government. Poverty is common, resulted in by numerous different factors such as failing markets, structural problems, unfortunate mishaps, and poor individual

    Read More

  • Who Rules America: Wealth Distribution

    616 Words  | 2 Pages

    Let's take it back to the past in regards to wealth distribution in this country. The fact is that the economy boomed from the end of WWII into the 1970's. “Incomes grew rapidly and at roughly the same rate up and down the income ladder, roughly doubling in inflation-adjusted terms between the late 1940s and early 1970s” (CBPP). Through the 70's economic growth slowed, and the wealth gap widened. Middle-class families were now considered lower class. People relied on the government to help them out with welfare programs. The middle-class class was weakened and the gap grew and grew. There were periods of positive fluctuation, however the middle-class simply never regained it's status that was held in more prosperous times in the past.

    Read More

  • The Cycle of Poverty

    1204 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Negative Essay On Inequality In America

    878 Words  | 2 Pages

    America’s upper class has been getting richer since the past three decades, and we have still not found a way to stop this. We have been unable to find a way to distribute America’s wealth equally, so we can have a decent lower class and a good middle class. Inequality has caused many people to struggle in various ways, but their is alway another side to the story.

    Read More

  • Why The Rich Are Getting Richer And The Poor, Poorer Essay

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Why the Rich are getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer” written by Robert Reich, describes as the title says, why the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer. In Reich’s essay he delves into numerous reasons and gives examples of each. It makes one wonder if the world will continue on the path of complete economic separation between the rich and the poor.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Wealth Inequality

    1189 Words  | 3 Pages

    Wealth inequality is the uneven distribution of resources in a given state or population, which can also be called the wealth gap. The sum of one’s total assets excluding the liabilities equates the person’s wealth also known as the net worth. Investments, residents, cash, real estates and everything owned by an individual are their assets.In reality, the United States is among the richest countries in the world, though a few people creating a major gap between the richest, the middle class and the poor control most of its wealth. For more than a quarter of a century, only the rich American families have shown an increase to their net worth.Thisis a worrying fact for the less fortunate in the country and calls for assessment (Baranoff, 2015).

    Read More

  • Essay On Income Inequality

    1524 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about Wealth Inequality Essay

Open Document