Economic Inequality Of The United States

According to Inequality.org, “We equate wealth with ‘net worth,’ the sum total of your assets minus liabilities. Assets can include everything from an owned personal residence and cash in savings accounts to investments in stocks/bonds, real estate, and retirement accounts. Liabilities cover what a household owes: a car loan, credit card balance, student loan, mortgage, or any other bill yet to be paid. In the United States, wealth inequality runs even more pronounced than income inequality” (Wealth). Wealth disparity affects everyone in America. When the top twenty percent of earners in America take over fifty percent of total earnings in any given year, It can be see as very unfair by anyone who is in the middle class and especially the lower class of citizens in the U.S. It is safe to say that both sides of the political world (Republicans and Democrats) are equally worried about how economic inequality will affect their children and future generations. No matter who you ask, rich or poor, and whatever their opinion on the shape of economic distribution in America is, they most likely have a unrealistic sense of the state it is actually in.

What is Income Inequality? Well “Income Inequality is the unequal distribution” of family or individual wage over the different individuals in an economy. Income inequality is often showen up “as the percentage of income to a percentage of population” (Staff.) Income inequality creates and impacts the U.S. in different aspects, whether it is distinguished by “region, gender, education and social status” (Staff), as well as there are certain causes and potential solutions to resolve the problems that Income Inequality creates.

The United States is often viewed as a wealthy and stable country, but as shown in 2011, “the richest fifth of American households received about 51.1 percent of total income, while the poorest fifth received about 3.2 percent” (McConnell). There are many sources of income inequality that effect poverty in the United States and the role that discrimination plays in reducing and increasing wages for different people and how the people of the United States are affected by it.

Single Black Female BA Seeks Educated Husband: Race, Assortative Mating and Inequality is an article that addresses income inequality in the United States by presenting how people choose their spouses. Rodrigue and Reeves (2015) show the correlation between choice of a spouse and education, income level, and race. They further present data on existing marriage gaps in relation to education, race and income level in the United States. Key in their argument are two issues: “assortative mating” and “marriage gaps”. This paper explores the authors’ arguments on “assortative mating” and “marriage gaps” and presents opinions on how “marriage gaps” can be addressed.

The problem of income inequality is one that is very prevalent in this time in America. The disparity of wealth in this country is very vast and a growing problem. These problems of income inequality are taking away peoples aspect human dignity, this is a major moral issue because everyone is entitled to human dignity and when it is taken away from them that is moral wrong. Additionally this is an issue in which the Church is very involved in. Additionally President Obama in his State of the Union Address back in January also made note of the problems in the nation with regards to income inequality and the minimum wage. The United States Catholic Conference

Income concentration in United States has changed along with the spending patterns of the individuals. This has induced and widened the pay gap between the wealthy and the middle class. One individual’s demand is now another’s necessity which is why the income ladder is hard to grab now. Although financial aid by the government does help the middle class students to acquire good quality education, but this is not enough as the wealthy can get what they want even if they possess lesser prospects.

The United States of America is vastly known for their rugged individualism. That is, the fascination with the belief that hard work and the free market will allow an individual to rise to the top. Since many of us were small children, we were told by our parents to pursue a college education, and once that is done, then our lives will fall into place.

One of the main topics discussed during this political science course is the political and economic inequality that has recently risen to staggering levels in the United States. Although political and economic inequality seem to be some of the most pressing issues we face today, little has been done to close the gap between the middle and upper classes. By looking at how our government and society behaves, one can see why the inequality barrier is such a difficult obstacle to overcome. Politicians may be more focused on staying in the good favor of their party than their people, but they are still elected by the majority. If more citizens took a more proactive approach to politics, social movements would be more successful and more balance would be brought to the political spectrum; however, money, powerful officials, and a general lack of interest prevent the government from maintaining a system that benefits everyone equally.

The study of inequality in America is vital to understanding the complicated political and social issues in America. Barrington, Illinois, my home town, is the picture of upper-middle class suburbia. It is a town with very little inequality, and very little diversity, but one which reveals some basic truths about inequality in America. One must first look at a snapshot of what Barrington socioeconomic structure is, then evaluate this structure through the theories of inequality. After these, and a quick evaluation of preconceived notions on Barrington’s inequality versus the real data, and a comparison of Barrington’s data to that of the United States as a whole, some conclusions can be drawn. These data reveal a strong correlation between Barrington’s lack of economic inequality, and lack of demographic and social diversity.

Wealth in the United States is generally thought to be distributed fairly as the highest earners have a higher percentage of wealth. Although this common notion is technically correct, the wealth is not spread as fairly as people might believe. The United States uses a free market, capitalistic economy, which entails wealth inequality. However, the amount of wealth inequality depends on how the government limits the wealthy. Interestingly enough, the government does not have regulations to distribute the wealth more fairly as the top 1% of earners in the United States own about 40% of the financial wealth in the country and the bottom 80% of earners own a measly 4.7%. Astonishingly, the financial wealth for the top 20% increased from 1983 to 2010 meaning the wealth became more concentrated at the higher socioeconomic tiers as time passed. These economic inequalities benefited the wealthy as they gained political powers, controlled a large portion of the economic market, and used capitalism to manipulate the public’s perspective of the wealth distribution in the United States. While wealth inequality is a result of capitalism, extremely wealthy people use their wealth to exercise political power,but the average person does not understand that this is a corrupt method of crippling the economy in favor of the ultra wealthy.

Wealth inequality is rooted in the American idea of capitalism because capitalism is creating a name for yourself and making the most money you can, capitalism also includes the fact you can do whatever you want with the money you acquired. Krugman talks about how capitalism created wealth inequality when he says, “…‘capitalism,' in which the commanding heights of the economy are controlled not by talented individuals but by family dynasties…” (Krugman). If generations ago your family was one of the first families in America and became exceedingly rich off of trade or land you probably still have a large majority of their money. Because we live in a capitalistic world people can choose to spend every single penny they have, or give their money

Economic inequality reigns as a massive divide in the United States of America. Many active policies cause people to occupy an economic level which is meant to benefit those above them. With that said, there have been many efforts taken in hopes of reducing the current levels of economic inequality, but with these efforts, money and wealth will have to be taken from the rich to give to the poorer. This is where the problem lies with wealth inequality – many have to sacrifice for those whom they presume to be unworthy of benefiting from their fortunes. Education, wealth, race, and power all play a role as to why action will not be taken to reduce the current levels of inequality in America.

Anyone can promise change but it's a different thing entirely to create a plan and act upon it. Today too many politicians who are full of empty promises of change. In our current economic state the United States of America needs a well crafted plan based off successful plans in other countries to make a change for the good of those in need. Economic inequality is on the rise; therefore, capitalism will have to make room for more democracy to help the lower and middle class survive.

In the article “Is inequality a bigger threat than the Islamic State?” we are introduced to various issues that pose a minor threat to the United States such as the Ebola virus, and the Islamic State (Isis). However, those international problems are relatively less important than the issue we have in our nation. Economic inequality has increased tremendously throughout the years and has been ignored mainly by those in power, hence, the working class continues to work for more than 40 hours a week for a minimum wage or their finances rarely increases. Therefore, inequality is a clear major threat in the U.S that involves everyone and ought to be addressed immediately.

In the United States there is an extreme negative economic gap that exist which is deplorable because it numbers based on inequality are worse than countries like Iran, and Russia. The early 80’s is when the wealth gap began to increase rapidly as there was a gap being created. This gap was not only wealth but also economic which is why the middle class began to disappear. But because of the situation what now has happened across the countries is that both rich and poor inhabitant the same neighborhoods and locality. This was from many affluent people who once let the cities but now returned back to the cities due to attractiveness of jobs opportunities. Therefore, there is an influx of wealthy, more educated, affluent people who move back to the city. In return, values go up because of mass people who want to live there and this drives those who were there who are less wealthy to become to some degree more poor. Moreover, because of this there is a question on whether this is just a economic inequality or a inequality of opportunity. Some of those that are rich or from affluent families are born into a family with already given opportunity. Is that those which are already having a chance even before having to work hard? According to (Pearlstein, 2017), unequal income has meant the rich have an extra 1.2 trillion dollars. This means that they are able to spread this wealth with those especially children who are at a disadvantage. The inequality that exists is far above just