Income Inequality Research Paper

Income inequality has been a major issue in American history. There are many different factors that contribute to inequality. These include education, wealth, discrimination, ability, and monopoly power.

Over the last several years the middle-class has continued to suffer a stall in incomes, while the upper class have had dramatic increases in their incomes. The middle-class have also had to bear more and more of the tax burden for social programs and struggle to make ends meet. Since Reconstruction, this disparity has been seen among those that are part of the upper class or top 1% in the country has had control of the majority of the wealth in the country. Capitalism continues to rule in US society and until some changes are made in balancing the wealth this will remain to be the rule rather than the

“Growing Apart: The Evolution of Income vs. Wealth Inequality” written by Michael Cragg and Rand Ghayad is an article about how wealth distribution in America has dramatically changed within the last three decades and how it has become one of the most political and economic trends in this nation. The main priority of the article is that it talked about how the wealth and financial statues in the United States has favored in the upper class and has opposed the middle and lower class within the last three decades. The first subdivision talked about how income inequality and wealth inequality are both different and how wealth inequality has a bigger negativity on the United States economic growth. The second subdivision talked about how if the

There is no doubt that wealth inequality in America has been escalating quickly; the portion of total income earned by the top one percent has doubled since the beginning of the 1970’s. The wealthy are the main beneficiaries

This article comes from ABC news and was written in the last two weeks. The title of the article is “Why it Matters: Income Inequality” and the concern of the article is how in America the rich keep getting richer and others are left behind in the dust unable to support themselves financially. This concept relates to Chapter One of the text when it was said that “market forces of globalization facilitating exploitation of the most vulnerable members of society on an even larger scale than previously possible.” (*** pg.3) This is one of the key topics that have been debated during the course of this year’s presidential election. The candidates are constantly being asked what they would do about the large income gap that is happening in America and how this huge crisis could be solved. The middle class is seemingly non-existent because of the difficulty

David Leonhardt, the writer of the essay, “Inequality Has Been Going on Forever… but That Doesn’t Mean it is inevitable” is responding to Thomas Piketty’s writing “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” that talks about how income inequality has always risen in history, and seems to be inevitable. David Leonhardt believes income inequality is not inevitable, and provides the reader with ways income inequality can be overcome. With only about a 5-page essay, with only little information on how income inequality can become non-inevitable, he needs some more support. After reading Monica Pott’s writing “What’s Killing Poor White Women?” I’ve realized the material discussed in her essay could be incorporated in Leonhardt’s essay to help him better support his argument. Leonhardt could touch on the things Potts has wrote about in her story about a poor woman, who has found herself without a lack of a good education, access to medical care, good wages, and a healthy lifestyle that comes from being in poverty. Leonhardt could’ve incorporated the problems discussed in Pott’s writing to support his argument by writing about the problems poor, less educated rural Americans face. To better support his argument he could have wrote about how the less educated rural Americans deal with scarce job opportunities, have less access to medical care, and develop unhealthy lifestyles as a result of

One of the social issues concerning power, status, and class in American society today is income inequality. The income gap between the social classes has increased drastically throughout the last few decades, creating a significant gap between the wealthy and the poor. This gap has become so large that the middle class has nearly diminished, creating a social class comprised of the rich and the poor. The significant gap between the two social classes is unhealthy for the economy because it provides too much power in the hands of those with high social status.

Capitalism has been the central force behind the growth of the United States’ progressive economy. Within such advanced economic system the chances of economic disparity are significantly high. In fact, over the past three decades there has being a steady increase in unequal wealth distribution among the economic classes. To sustain the current unequal wealth distribution among the classes of the American population, there are numerous factors that influence and shape this trend. For some members of the population it is alarmingly disturbing to know that recent statistics have shown that, “In the US [alone] the wealthiest 1% of its population owns more than the bottom 95 %” (Gutman). As for the difference in economic wealth, it resulted

The author touches on an important issue that affects the United States, which is income inequality between different sexes and occupations. The researcher asks an interesting research question that affects a high population in the United States. There have been several debates on income inequality, and it is essential to know the contribution of government and state policies to this problem. The increase in the disparity started in the mid-1970s. It is also important to know the reason for the inequalities between different states. This makes it easier to identify and change policies that contribute to income inequality. The research question is situated properly in the literature. The literature first explains the problem of income inequality,

Income inequality has affected American citizens ever since the American Dream came to existence. The American Dream is centered around the concept of working hard and earning enough money to support a family, own a home, send children to college, and invest for retirement. Economic gains in income are one of the only possible ways to achieve enough wealth to fulfill the dream. Unfortunately, many people cannot achieve this dream due to low income. Income inequality refers to the uneven distribution of income and wealth between the social classes of American citizens. The United States has often experienced a rise in inequality as the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, increasing the unstable gap between the two classes. The

In other words, America has a widening gap between its wealthy and poor. As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, there is a problem emerging: the disappearance of the middle class. Low-wage workers continue to fall behind those who make higher wages, and this only widens the gap between the two. There has been an economic boom in the United States, which has made the country more prosperous than it has ever been. That prosperity does not reach all people; it seems to only favor the rich. Rising economic segregation has taken away many opportunities for the poor to rise in America today. The poor may find that the economic boom has increased their income; however, as their income increase so does the prices they must for their living expenses (Dreier, Mollenkopf, & Swanstrom 19).

The highest earning fifth of U.S. families earned 59.1% of all income, while the richest earned 88.9% of all wealth. A big gap between the rich and poor is often associated with low social mobility, which contradicts the American ideal of equal opportunity. Levels of income inequality are higher than they have been in almost a century, the top one percent has a share of the national income of over 20 percent (Wilhelm). There are a variety of factors that influence income inequality, a few of which will be discussed in this paper. Rising income inequality is caused by differences in life expectancy, rapidly increases in the incomes of the top 5 percent, social trends, and shifts in the global economy.

Currently there are many problems and flaws with the way the Canadian government’s policies deal with healthcare, income inequality and poverty. Time to time changes in policies have been made, perhaps to improve these issues, however, the gap between rich and poor keeps increasing and there is very little improvement in healthcare and the economy. In fact, healthcare keeps on becoming costly. Major issues like income inequality and poverty are not being taken care of by the government. According to Dr. Raphael (2002) poverty is caused by several reasons such as inequality in people’s income, weak social services and lack of other social supports (p.VI). He states, “Poverty directly harms the health of those with low incomes while income

The three theoretical perspectives that we will describe in this paper are: (1) modernization theory; (2) dependency theory, and; (3) world systems theory. We will first begin with the modernization theory.

Moreover, economic growth is often positively linked to more investments, higher employment-generating operations, and an increase in employment. Hence, allowing larger entrance to jobs and income to a major number of people, economic growth may cause a negative effect on income inequality especially if it was not joined by social progress. Because of the following reasons, the degree of the effect may differ between urban and rural areas. Firstly, a greater job competition may occur in urban areas due to higher population density, lead these areas to have a lower access to jobs compared to rural areas. Secondly, in urban areas international immigration is usually higher than in rural areas. It can be often seen that there are many immigrants