When Making Public Policy Decisions

In Paul Krugman’s essay, “Confronting Inequality,” he discusses various points about how America has developed into quite the divided country over the years. The United States of America has become unequal in terms of annual income, living standards, education and school districts, politics, and social standards, just to name a few. Several matters of combatting the injustice faced by the nation are also mentioned. All of Krugman’s points revolve around one central question, being “why should we care about high and rising inequality?” (Graff, Birkenstein, Durst 561). I believe inequality truly does raise concerning problems within our society, but it also may be a positive thing for our people. Extreme equality could, in turn, result in a communistic government in which those who work into overdrive earn the same titles as those who do not.

This is important because inequality causes unrest and brings about interminable turmoil which can eventually lead to a collapse of a regime or a state. If every human being is given equal opportunities then the outcome after those opportunities were presented, whether it was success of failure, fully rests upon the individual’s shoulders. In case of failure, the government or any other individual would not be held accountable.

"How Economic Inequality Harms Societies." Richard Wilkinson:. TED Talks, July 2011. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.

Edin and Skinner begin their article by explaining to their readers that income inequality is a prevalent and complex problem in America today. The authors also point out that although President Obama and several other Democrats have proposed legislative approaches, such as raising the minimum wage and taxing the rich, to combat this problem, it will take a long time for these proposals to become law due to the Republican-dominated Congress. Because the authors believe these laws will take too long to be put into

Economic Inequality is the thing that makes the United States the Land of Opportunity to many immigrants. Many Immigrants relocate themselves and/or families for the purpose of experiencing “The American Dream”. The American Dream is the dream of Democracy, Equality and a better opportunity through hard work and dedication. Without the American Dream, there wouldn’t be any inventors or hard workers. If everyone in America was paid the same no matter what occupation, they had, the United States would’ve been a Socialist country. In order to avoid being a Socialist country, America turned to Economic Inequality. The United States accepted Economic Inequality because of the belief that capitalism can’t work without it. Economic Inequality creates the gap that separates the Rich from the poor based off of the wages one gets from their occupation. As Economic Inequality helped the United

Income inequality has been a progressively growing issue in the United States, even today. The problem dates back all the way to the Great Depression, although some researchers tend to think that it is older than that. The difference between the wealth of higher-income families and lower-income families has become a great issue. Many people, including our government, think that they know how they can fix it. They have tried time and time again to come up with solutions, yet we are still facing the same obstacle that we were almost one hundred years ago. The effects that this dilemma is setting forth for our United States’ economy, environment, and even our education is repulsing.

Income inequality in the United States has been increasing gradually as from the 20th century where there was economic stability. It is estimated that around a quarter of the American worker population receives not more than $10 in an hour. Through this condition, it creates an income that is below what the federal poverty level demands. Those who receive low income include the fast food employees, cashiers, nurse's aides and many more. Other individuals get good payments which are above $10 per hour. Wealth inequality in America is quite common as there are those who are the major economic block and those who can’t afford even the three meals in a day. The social issues that income and wealth inequality might cause in the United States include poverty, household debts becoming high, high crime rates, no health insurance for the low-income families, high mobility rates, high crime rates and school dropouts.

Individuals will then be able to purchase more goods and this can have a positive impact on the economy nation as a whole (CQ Research, pg. 1001). With the poor having issue having an issue receiving the education needed to move upward in the social economic ladder (CQ Researcher, pg.), income equality result in individuals possibly being able to afford a proper education that can allow them to get into occupations that can move them

Too often politic play a significant role where these programs aren’t as effective in leveling off the playing field for everyone. I believe the question is not necessarily what policies that ought to be implemented to reduce inequalities, but merely how to make the systems that are already in place work for everyone. For instance, social programs such as welfare is supposed to be helping folks that desperately needed them, and in many cases, these programs are often abused because of lack of oversight and improper distribution. The concept of these programs makes sense, but the reality is that these programs may help folks in the short term, and failed to address the issue of inequality at large. Another example is the unfairness of taxes; Warren Buffet, once said that he paid fewer taxes than his secretary. Well, that is our problem right there. And since the rich and special interest own Congress, it's no wonder why elected officials do not represent the interest of ordinary folks. To address inequality, we must resolve this issue from the top down, not from the bottom up, and what I mean by that is to tackle the corruption from top which consistently suppressing average people. We must start by demanding accountability of our government to ensure quality for all, not just the trickle down mind game, or say what folks needs to hear to just to earn

I do not believe the income inequality in the United States are a necessary "evil". I consider the cause of this problem to be due to a lack of government incentives. The 1% abusing their power to use loopholes to keep their money is unfair to the other 99%.

Economic inequality has been steadily growing over the past decades. According to this article, “In more recent years, accumulation of wealth by economic elites has received greater attention. Not only are the rich becoming richer, but the disparities are growing the fastest at the top. In the United States, for example, growth in wealth has occurred mainly at the very top of the scale.” (Hansen 457). This means that wealth begins to expand and business owners earn more, however pay more but not a lot more then previously. This would be a good thing, but not everyone in America is a business owner. In fact, the majority of citizens slightly benefited from the growing economy. While most view the economy as unequal, the upper class and even U.S representatives consider it fair and justified (Kraus and Callaghan

From the Roman Empire to modern day America one issue has plighted all of history: income inequality. Income inequality is when there is a noticeable and evident gap in which income is distributed unevenly between the rich and the poor. We can particularly see income inequality playing a major role in the foundations of the French Revolution and we can see income inequality starting to transcend into becoming a real problem for America today, namely due to a practice of neoliberalism in the American economy. The solution to fixing the American economy would be to start a process of regulation of the economy and funding of social programs.

In the last two decades, there have been countless debates on the need to reform the United States of American health care system. The reform is to enable a more comprehensive system that will address pressing issues such as the growing number of uninsured American. The USA is one of the leading countries when in to healthcare and its systems. It is also the country with the most spending when it comes to healthcare. According to an article published in the commonwealth fund, the United States health care system is found to be the most expensive in the world, but it also shows the U.S. underperforms relative to other countries on most dimensions of performance (Davis, Stremikis, Squires, & Schoen, 2014).

An attempt to minimize poverty for non-whites, but many people of color have remained in poverty for generations even though federal programs have been put in place to try and solve the poverty issue. In fact according to a 2011 US Census report, 26% of African-Americans still live in poverty, but that is down from the 55% reported in 1959. In the same report only 12% of whites lived in poverty in 2011. The government spends over 1 trillion a year on anti-poverty programs, yet hasn’t been able to end it. Some families for many generations have never known “middle-class prosperity”, because they don’t have access to the best schools, social resources, or career opportunities that so many other people take for

Decision-making is very vital in the study of administration. Decision-making is the act of deciding the best choice or alternative that brings success or advantage to a situation that will ensure maximum benefits and least risk. Probability can be applied to decision-making in public administration because it is possible to estimate the probability of occurrence of specific events. A part of decision-making in relationship to public administration has to do with goals. The probability of you meeting those goals depends on decision-making. For example a restaurant owner has received more revenue on Thursdays than on any other day And less Revenue on Saturdays than any other day. The owner has looked at everything that could have influenced his sales. The owner realized that the only things that were different on Thursdays than any other day was the chief special and the drink special. According to the receipts of the last four Thursdays the probability that a customer orders a drink special is 60%. The probability that a customer orders the chief special is 50%. The probability of them ordering both is 42%. This shows the restaurant owner that Thursdays drink special should be considered on both Thursdays and Saturdays.