Wealth Inequality In America

From 1938-1969, in America was in a period called the great compression, a time where the difference between the richest and poorest Americans was very small and economic growth was explosive. Due to past and current economic policies and events, income inequality has exploded in America, which is why in 2015 America had the highest level of wealth inequality in the world at 80.56 gini[1] . In the future this inequality will slow down economic growth, increase debt for middle income Americans, make America less democratic, and reduce economic mobility. This problem, however, does have solutions and this paper will lay out some of the solutions and the effect they will have on the economy, but first I will explain the history of income inequality in the US.

Imagine all the wealth in the United States. Roughly 84.9 trillion dollars, a pretty big number to wrap your mind around, right? Now imagine a third of that number concentrated into the hands of only 1% of the population of the United States. Not only would this seem unfair, but also immoral. Sadly, this unfortunate situation is a reality in the United States. Of all the political issues that face this nation, wealth inequality is often overlooked. This type of inequality is defined as the unequal distribution of assets among a population. The United States has one of the highest gaps between the upper and lower class out of other developed countries. Resolving this issue is a complicated

The recent rise in awareness has brought the concept of income inequality to the forefront of American’s minds; however, this is certainly not a new phenomenon. The United States has struggled with income inequality since its birth 241 years ago; the much bigger issue today stands within the mentality of greed that has developed in recent time. While income inequality has existed since the nation 's birth, the looming threat to societies wellbeing is the emergence of a mentality of greed that has grown unbridledly in recent decades. America’s capitalist economic system has made the institution of income inequality as American as baseball, cheeseburgers, and pick-up trucks. Arguably since the 1980’s and 90’s, an ornery wee gremlin dubbed

“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” This quote from Plutarch, a Greek philosopher, explores how a divide of wealth between rich and poor can destroy the fabric of a society. Wealth has been divided unequally by granting more to the rich and not leaving enough for the poor Americans, thereby creating a wealth gap. Income inequality occurs when wealth is distributed unequally in a population because of the influence richer Americans have which leads to a multitude of problems including the declining buying power of the middle class as well as a country where the rich can buy power through donations in elections.

America was once known as the land of opportunity. However, that is no longer the case. Americans are still suffering from a depression that began three years ago in 2008. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2007, the United States unemployment rates were 4.6 percent. In 2009, one year after the depression began, the unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent. Millions of Americans are living in poverty, unable to afford the basic necessities. On the other hand, there is a minuscule percent of the population that are billionaires. Written in 2005, Holly Sklar’s essay “The Growing Gulf Between the Rich and the Rest of Us” argues that if something isn’t done about the growing inequality between the rich and the poor, the American

A) There is a very big gap between the poor and the rich. The middle class is shrinking and now looking more and more like the poor. In the first video they asked 5,000 Americans how they think wealth is distributed in the United States. Of these Americans 92% of them believed that wealth should be equally distributed across the board. The bottom 40% of Americans barely have any of the nation’s wealth and the top 1% have more wealth than people believe the top 20% combined should have. Most of the nation has only 7% of the wealth. An average worker would have to work for a whole month to make what a CEO makes in an hour. Many people at the top end of the wealth have the power to decrease the inequality, but they won’t because that would mean they make a lot less money, and they only care about themselves. America needs to change the distribution of wealth or we will go under as a nation. What happened to equal opportunity for all?

Income inequality is a phenomenon that is undeniably real in our current world, and more specifically, the present United States. Canon describes how the gap between the elite and the poor has been consistently growing for many years and continues to widen (189). Whether the differences between the top and the bottom are a threat to current society is another story. Does income inequality undermine a democracy? Ray Williams argues that societies are strongest when they have a higher rate of equality while George Will challenges that inequality is the very basis of what make democratic processes. A. Barton Hinkle takes a Libertarian approach to the idea that inequality is threatening to democracy and how it can be fixed. Some threats that each article addressed were economic impacts, civility, and fairness. Overall, there is a definite need to evaluate whether the United States democracy is being threatened due to the continuous rise of the elites and the fall of the working class.

In the United States today, inequality in wealth is everywhere. Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman are two economists who have done multiple studies to attempt to measure the amount of inequality in today’s society. What they found is this: “In America, the wealthiest 160,000 families own as much wealth as the poorest 145 million families, and that wealth is about 10 times as unequal as income,” (Matthews). This is a particularly devastating statistic, considering how many families in America are dealing with poverty, and yet those few families in the top one percent nearly control the economy. When so many people are struggling just to get by in today’s economy, it becomes crucial for something to be done. In communities, small actions can be taken to improve the economy locally, and little by little the economy can be rebuilt into something that can help everyone, and exclude no one.

Income inequality in the United States has developed since the nineteenth century and the industrial age. Historically the Rockefellers, Carnegies, and Mellons of the industrial age were the individuals that understood that wealth was capable of transforming anyone’s life if society provided the window of opportunity. For those men the industrial age brought significant social change that forever changed the landscape of the American work force, and began a surge of possibilities in the nation that continues today. Through the past the wealthy were capable of discovering how the developments in the labor market, and the changing make-up of households could develop into millions of dollars if one knew what the working

Economic Inequality When you turn on the news nowadays, some of America’s biggest problems are right there flashing across your screen. However, the increasing issue of inequality that our country is facing doesn’t seem to get quite the attention it deserves. The disproportion of lower and middle class families to wealthier families, due to economic inequality, is in dire need of a solution!

Income and wealth inequality in the western world is an extremely destabilizing force. These levels of inequality have not existed since the gilded age or the 1920s. Without the redistribution of wealth in the short term and creating a more equal playing field in the long term, the future of humanity looks dystopic.

The United States has a problem with wealth inequality among its citizens with race being a large determinant. Wealth generates over time, and as a result of slavery in early American history, black families have been victims of stolen land, money, and resources that have hindered that ability. White families on the other hand have been given much more of an opportunity to build up a stable financial backbone. The United States Government has to take this burden upon itself for the fact that it permitted slavery and allowed these injustices to take place. This situation can be comparable to how Germany has repaid Jewish families affected by the Holocaust. Since the United States Government allowed for the stolen wealth of black Americans, it should provide monetary reparations to families whose ancestors suffered from slavery or other forms of stolen wealth.

Income inequality has been an ongoing issue that affects many American citizens for decades. Some Americans more affected by income inequality than other Americans. This is an unfortunate fact, but there seems to be no easy solution and it seems it’s getting worse. American citizens are losing hope in the system and their voices screaming for change, that benefits all, are rarely heard.

Throughout history, there has been growing economic inequality in the United States. As the rich have become richer, in turn, the poor have become poorer. The more money accumulated by the top 1%, the less money there is available for everyone else. The elites have controlled the political systems, while pushing policies to benefit themselves. Sadly, many people are left hurting and at a disadvantage in the economic world. The gap between the ‘haves” and the “have nots” is widening as the wealthiest are taking a larger slice of the pie.

Without a doubt, our society has mercilessly segregate the ‘elite’ from the ‘inferior.’ There are two groups of people that contribute to the economy, the wildly rich and elite one percent and the other group is everyone else or the inferior majority. There is no longer a gap between these two group, but rather an ever-growing abyss. This injustice is known as the income inequality and many factors in our plagued society contribute to the growth of this issue. At birth, each human being is born with access to different resources and because of this, most Americans need to work much harder to simply make ends meet. Income inequality is the result of the discrepancies and differences between people’s education, wealth, personal ability, monopoly, and discrimination.