'America's Stacked Deck' By Nicholas Kristof

‘Despite several attempts to regulate campaign finance, money increasingly dominates the U.S. Electoral process and is the main factor contributing to a candidates success’ Discuss (30 marks)

As the 2016 United States election is fast approaching, the debates on wealth inequality has once again captured the public’s attention. The society is divided in its opinion of whether the government is responsible for allowing the leading financial institutes and business tycoons to accumulate their affluence within a lax regulatory environment. Others argue that the imbalance of income distribution between the rich and the poor are just simply part of the capitalism package. In order to understand the roots of wealth inequality and to review some of the key concepts that are fundamental to these discussions, former Reuters editor Chrystia Freeland’s "Plutocrats" is a riveting account on the rise of plutocracy.

In “Income Inequality: The Public and the Partisan Divide,” Blendon and Benson explain the issue of income inequality and the need to address it. The importance of explaining this problem provides insight for the people who are not educated about the topic, hopefully triggering more public awareness. Blendon and Benson support their opinion by discussing that the two major political parties in the U.S. agree that income inequality is a problem that must be recognized, but cannot come up with a synopsis on how to take care of it. Also, they describe how different perspectives cause different ideas for fixing the issue. Blendon and Benson explain how partisan views towards the role of government are one of the perspectives towards how the income

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

Dan Ariely, A psychology and behavioral economics professor at Duke University, explains the inequality gap behind social classes in America through his ted talk “How equal do we want the world to be.” Ariely argues that it is important for society to step away from their expectations of reality to have a more educated understanding of the truth behind certain topics such as the inequality of wealth. Ariely persuades his listeners through his use of rhetorical devices such as visual aids, appeals, and his interaction with the audience. In this paper, I plan to focus each paragraph on how each element is a useful contribution to his argument.

11). He further states that those of the republican party during this era “had little reluctance to negotiate over issues of taxing and spending” and would “declare the resulting compromise a victory, and move on” (Lofgren, 2012, p. 11), there was still the possibilities of bipartisan coalition. Now however, we see stark differences. Although Republicans have been traditionally been more solicitous to those of the upper-class, we see now a primary focus on the wealthy – more so, republicans now appear to be strictly oriented and geared towards the concerns of the rich as opposed to the middle class or “blue-collar” workers (Lofgren, 2012). They do this through the reduction on taxes for said classes, reducing regulations on businesses, and by maintaining a stellar relationship and “open-door” with the giants of wall street. To put it frankly and as best described by Lofgren, republicans are now simply captives to corporate loot (Lofgren,

Stiglitz identifies dwindling opportunity, monopoly power and tax treatment, and the investments of the government as the effects from manipulating the economy to exclusively benefit the top 1%. The societal impact becomes clear when the author states that the ultimate price is the “erosion of our sense of identity,” which includes “fair play, equality of opportunity, and a sense of community” because a majority of people realize the importance of these topics related to the success of themselves and their country (Stiglitz, “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%”). The article concludes with the significance of paying attention to common welfare as a “precondition for one’s own ultimate well-being” that the top 1% have a history of failing to grasp before meeting their

My essay challenges how each political party feels in regard to the middle class. I presented viewpoints from various sources that were able to engage in a conversation. Many Americans believe very strongly in favor of one political party, but in my essay I presented points that support and oppose each political party. This challenges the idea that a person can only support one political party when their interests can support another.

Due to the need for campaign funds by both the Democratic and Republican party, representatives and party leaders are easily influenced by the alluring presence of money presented by the wealthy. Consequently, in terms of economic position, laws and policies tend to favor the privileged rather than the overall majority. For instance, beginning in the 1970s, corporate America started to invest more money and focus into politics. A large amount of corporate spending is on lobbying. In contrast, most Americans don’t have an organization to lobby for them. This being so, because the wealthy have more lobbying clout, the government tends to pay closer attention to the concerns of the very privileged.

At the heart of the rise of populism in the United States is the issue of inequality. The gap between the wealthy and poor has been growing at an alarming rate. In response, Americans have turned to populist leaders on both sides of the aisle, most notably Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, for a solution. Wealth inequality poses a serious threat to future generations like mine, who, in pursuit of the American Dream, will find upward mobility nearly impossible. Disenfranchised, desire for innovation and growth will cease.

Asyndeton - “When I woke later on, I opened the lunch bag Mama has packed for me and inside. Tucked between the knishes and matzo balls and chopped liver, was her polish passport, with her picture inside.” (Pg 215) This is an example of asyndeton because the author doesn’t use conjunction in a long sentence that contains commas, but instead just continues to elaborate.

The power elite is able to exert power over society. The power elite’s control over politics demonstrates how inequality is functional. This validates the class-domination theory of power, which is distributed based on economic power. By controlling economic resources, the power elites political influence in government shapes law and those involved in government to the power elites benefit. In today’s American society these laws have impacted both the corporate community and the elite. Furthermore, the author’s portrayal of the elite displayed how the elite have control concerning choices in government policies, elections, and laws.

Lastly, in 2015 about 10,000 people died and 290,000 were injured by being involved in drunk driving crashes. To think that most of these innocent people were just going on about their business and got into a car crash because of someone else's mistake is heartbreaking. Every death, and every injury not only affects the people that were in the crash, but it affects their family, and friends. In 2014, 209 children under 14 died while being in a vehicle with an impaired driver. Drunk driving causes unnecessary fatalities, and since the victims were completely innocent and did nothing wrong, the drunk driver should be given a harsh penalty, for not being responsible and making the wrong decision.

Birth control has been legal in the US since 1972. It is, for the most part, easily accessible to American women currently. Such accessibility is not the case in third world countries. Despite the United Nations declaring birth control to be a “universal human right”, 222 million women in developing countries are still left without Family Planning methods (“ThinkProgress”). Less fortunate countries have difficulty providing birth control because of costs and social disapproval. Even in countries with limited access to birth control, women choose not to use it due to misconceptions stemmed from lack of education. However, all women deserve access to birth control no matter what country they reside in. Not only could it benefit women’s health, but it could save lives.

Prevalent flaws within most modern democracies are evident in their social and economic systems. One such problem, in a system that advocates freedom to do whatever you please, is the consequential wealth disparity (Wong, Oct. 24 lecture, tutorial). Aristotle once said that, “democracy is the form of government in which… the free are the many and the rich are the few”. This highlights a paradox of democracy in that it attempts to be equal to all, yet often the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer, and an increasing wealth divide will influence governance. Constant writes (pg. 12), “wealth is a power more readily available at any moment… more