Four Dimensions Of Social Inequality In The United States

Brittany LamberthProfessor Wells English 102June 15, 2018Paul Krugman, agrees that the country is becoming economically diverse bit by bit. The middle ground amongthe richest and poorest is vanishing, and inequality is`widespread. His essay, “Confronting inequality” revealsonly how inequalityaffects us, but, as McClelland opposes, how recurringinequality can be. He references a study performed by the National Center for Education informationfrom the 1988 to 2003, in which eighth grade students were arrangedboth by academic skilland the socioeconomic rankof their parents, and the college graduation percentage. If our educational system truly gave all students equivalentopportunities, then we would expect the graduation rates to depend onlyon

Sociologists use the term social stratification to describe the system of social standing. “Social stratification refers to a society’s categorization of its people into rankings of socioeconomic tiers based on factors like wealth, income, race and education” (Griffith et al., 2016 p.187). In the United States IQ is also one of the characteristics of social stratification in terms of personal skills, achievements, and athletic abilities.

is through socioeconomic status. According to Sean Reardon, a main outcome of the widening income gap for families has been a widening gap in achievement among children, which he refers to as the income achievement gap (Reardon, 2011). Therefore, the children of the poor remain at an educational disadvantage when their parents’ income becomes as much of a predictor of their educational achievements, as their parents’ educational obtainment. To emphasize the results of the income achievement gap, Reardon states, “As the children of the rich do better in school, and those who do better in school are more likely to become rich, we risk producing an even more unequal and economically polarized society” (Reardon, 2011, p. 111). For example, as standardized testing shifted towards standardized achievement testing to determine a student’s academic achievement, parental investment in their children’s cognitive development began to increase. Educational disparities occur when affluent families can very easily afford tutoring outside of the classroom for their children to perform highly, while children being raised in impoverished homes are at a disadvantage, and at a lower chance of doing well on these exams. This becomes problematic when SAT reading, math, and writing scores increase with income as exemplified by the disproportionately small amount of minority students in higher education (Brand lecture,

It is to be said in a new research that was done, showing that “low-income kids” aren’t developed fully in certain parts of their brains and behind other kinds in their same age group. The results of this came to be that children that come families with a low income household, happen to have a thinner neocortex, which is a “particular area of the brain” and its role is in memory and the ability to learn (Woodruff.) This is something that should really concern people, because children are our future. How and why is this happening? Well it’s all based from the nutrients, the health care, the education, and the amount of stress they enter counter, that affects children’s lives and this is all caused by Income Inequality. “The brain of a child whose family earns less than $25,000 annually is 6% smaller in surface area than a child whose parents earned more than $150,000, according to the study” (Woodruff.) Which is very surprisingly but sadly it makes sense, since children who grow up in an environment where that have access to things that children from low income environments

Rendon (1994) points out “students from underrepresented backgrounds often experience isolation, a lack of self-efficacy, and a lack of a sense of belonging in college contexts”(p. 48). Furthermore, one needs to take it one step back and realize that most students of color are much more likely to attend schools where most of their peers are poor or low-income. Therefore, socio economic status (SES) determines the education a person receives throughout K-12. Walpole (2004) also describes how “low SES parents are more likely to define success as a secure full-time job after graduating from high school. College attendance is not an expectation and often means enrolling in a community college or technical school when it does occur” (p. 47). When a student reaches the

Living in a peaceful world would mean that no one (and I mean NO ONE) would go hungry or be without basic medical care; denying individuals access to food, clean water and basic medical care is both in-humane as well as ignorant. The inhumanity of denying food to individuals who cannot by no fault of their own feed themselves when we have supermarkets, refrigerators, and pantries over flowing a bounty of food. Turning away from a person who is hungry, while the US as a nations spends more on its household pets than it does in donations to local food bangs demonstrates ignorance of our understanding that perhaps the stem of violence both here and overseas could be stymied if we’d only offered not only bags of rice but a safe place to grow

Inequality is a problem that has had an effect on the United States for many years. Although throughout the years the severity of inequality has fluctuated, it has increased greatly within the past two decades. There are many factors that could have influenced this increase. Some of the factors include technology and deindustrialization.

As an American, we revel in our freedoms. Not everything is free, however, we have laws that were created for safety. They help keep everyone happy, alive and well. The foundation for these laws came from the founding fathers; they wished for Americans alive then, alive now, and alive years from now feeling safe and free. However, there are fatal flaws in the documents created by the founding fathers. These documents are not effective in establishing and preserving freedoms of Americans because they confined the definition of a valued American to white males as well as allowed the means of corruption to enter our laws through lack of rigidity.

Social inequality exists in the United States through the Elite’s power to maintain their dominance in the United States capitalist system. The Elite Ruling class is made of the upper class and this class of individuals share similar ideology and are the members of the United State’s Superstructure. The Elite Ruling Class members of society are the decision and policy makers in the United States. Research and history has proven that many policies and decisions made by the Elite Ruling Class serve their own interest and promote their ideas. These decisions are the source of the inequality in the United States and it contributes to their ability to maintain their dominant status. The inequality is trickled down to the other classes through social policy and social institutions that affect our lives everyday citizens. A major example of this social inequality can be seen in the United States housing market or home ownership. A significant amount of studies, statics and data supports the evidence of social inequality within the US housing market or home ownership. The following passages will discuss social inequality in the United States as it is connected to Karl Marx’s theory of capitalism’s power and influence of the Elite Dominant i.e. the Ruling Class view as it relates to homeownership within the United States. Karl Marx’s theory however focuses mostly on economic s and the difference between upper and lower class not race. It is also important to point out that the Elite

Amongst many social justice issues, educational inequity continues to dramatically affect the nation's youth in the long term. However, for some students the ability to access a quality primary education provided by public schools depends on the students socioeconomic bearing. The insufficient availability of essential resources, opportunities, and funding creates a hurdle to access a higher quality education. This reiterates that a higher education creates a step forward in the education system to close the achievement gap.

Why is it that American women get paid 77% less than the average male does? Is it because people in America are sexist? Or is it because American men feel that a woman made more than the men it would cause a shift or balance of power at home or in the economy in total. The structural function of today’s economy is becoming more and more diverse. More women are becoming better educated, which gets them a better paying job. But the dysfunction of today’s economy and social issues is everywhere no matter what job a female gets. If a man with the same qualifications as a female and they both were to get the same job. The man would get paid more, causing a conflict in the workspace between employees. If the country were to fix the situation between

Economic inequality still exists in America. Although, Martin Luther King, Jr fought to see the end of inequality in America, he spoke that his dreams became nightmares as he continued to visit cities with high rates of poverty. The data, seemingly, reveals the highest rates of poverty are in the southern States. “. . .California, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Florida had the largest poverty increases, with the 2013 poverty rates in these states more than 4 percentage points higher than in 2007. There was, worse yet, a concomitant increase in the depth of poverty: In 36 states, the gap between a poor family’s total income and the poverty threshold increased between 2007 and 2013, yet another indication of a growing economic vulnerability

America’s education system is a fine exemplar, as the growth of inequality has greatly affected its learning environments and the students themselves. According to Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane, the difference between math and reading scores between low- and high-income families have been growing tremendously compared to several decades ago (“Growing Income Inequality Threatens American Education”). A main cause of this is the stress low-income families suffer, as they continue to struggle with food, housing, and learning supplies. Higher-income children have no such concerns and only focus on their education, creating misconceptions of low-income students, such as being lazy and unintelligent. Higher tuitions and student supplies also aid social inequality, as they discourage lower and middle-class individuals from learning due to exorbitant cost, which has more than tripled over the past 50 years for both private and public colleges (“Tuition and Fees and Room and Board over Time”). Inequality has so much free reign over America that low-income individuals have less than a 10% chance to escape their current social position, and their children have even less than that (“Mobility, Measured”). As a result, social inequality forces America’s citizens to remain socially and economically stagnant, devoid of any opportunity to change in

Our society is in a downhill spiral. There is no liberty, no equality and there is no physical value of money. We live in a world in which prison companies and children’s hospitals are traded publicly on the stock market. Virtual currency is the only thing that these corporations strongly care about. There are no boundaries when profits are in concern. We live in a society that is dominated by the attraction of money. Greed is the characteristic that is pervasive, not generosity or compassion. People are encouraged to be selfish, not charitable. The idea and function of governments will only change if people’s minds alter first.

Income inequality and the effects on education have been at the heart of a contentious debate. As researcher Sean Reardon of Stanford University, explained recently in The New York Times: “We have moved from a society in the 1950s and 1960s, in which race was more consequential than family income, to one today in which family income appears more determinative of educational success than race” (Tavernise, 2012, para 4). The effects of income inequality are wide and equally disparaging. Income equality has numerous influences on society, particularly educational attainment. Education is considered an equalizer in society, capable of improving the chance for success for disadvantage students (Tavernise, 2012). The rising income inequality has been paralleled by a similar increase in academic achievement gradient. Research indicates that students from families that fall below the poverty line have a decreased chance of achieving educational attainment. The aforementioned is troubling since educational attainment is one of the mechanisms for absconding poverty (Reardon, 2011).