Inequality In Latin America Essay

Inequality exists around us. One of the inequalities is the income received by a person or member of a family. This income includes wages, salaries, pensions, and interest derived from assets. Income inequality refers to the various income within a given population. This inequality is especially high in the United States.

Murray, Harry. "Deniable Degradation: The Finger-Imaging Of Welfare Recipients." Sociological Forum 15.1 (2000): 39. Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 May 2013.

In the United States, high standard of living is not equally shared with in the Americans. The 1970s and 1990s was period where economic inequality began to grow. Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor at UC Berkeley has been doing a research for the U.S. income inequality. He states that there has been an increase since the 1970s, and has reached levels that have not been seen since 1928. “In 1928, the top 1% of families received 23.9% of all pretax income, while the bottom 90% received 50.7%. But the Depression and World War II dramatically reshaped the nation’s income distribution, by 1944 the top 1%’s share was down to 11.3%, while the bottom 90% were receiving 67.5%, levels that would remain more or less constant for the next three decades. But starting in the mid- to late 1970s, the uppermost percent income share began rising dramatically, while that of the bottom 90% started to fall.”(DeSilver) Ever since then, economic inequality continues to increase, especially in the last three decades.

What would it take for one country and their people to do whatever is necessary to attain freedom and rules that would pertain to a better future? Throughout the revolutions, these questions have been answered, but fight after fight is the most noticeable action as seen so far in the chapter. This leads to the question, how would a new government cause issues, instead of helping? Latin America faced many issues dealing with independence and struggled in many areas and needed to develop a new strategy, so the issues with independence can be resolved. However, the development of the nation did not occur well due to the structure of their new government and the people wanted them to know that the old system was what they were looking for and the treatment of the people was not stable.

The progress of Latin America economically has made differences for the better or worse for several countries. In Central and South America, there are resources, industries, and agriculture that has been made gradually through the years. However, before the economic Latin America many know today, other civilizations lived first. In Central America, the Maya, Aztec, and Olmec lived there. (Document 1) The Mayans were known to live in the Yucatan Peninsula, while the Aztec lived in Tenochtitlan, and the Olmec in present day Veracruz and Tabasco. (Document 1) In South America, lived the Inca. The Inca lived in Peru, Chile. (Document 1) Aside from earlier civilizations, there are also four zones of climate. (Document 3) These types of climates are Tierra Helada (Frozen Land), Tierra Fria (Cold Land), Tierra Templada (Temperate Land), Tierra Caliente (Hot Land). All of these have different livestock and crops depending on the climate.

The relationship between the gender roles reflected in telenovelas and the the role of women in Latin American countries is a matter of parallelism. This is because as Judith Butler, the author of the book Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, emphasized that it is “impossible to separate out ‘gender’ from the political and cultural intersections in which it is invariably produced and maintained”. Gender is undeniably socially constructed, and is a product of the values deemed important by that society being constantly reenacted and reinforced. In that sense, telenovelas are also another medium through which beliefs in gender can be relayed to the audience, forming what is called the “imaginable domain of gender” as they either perpetuate or go against ideal hegemony (Beard 2003).

When the Europeans first arrived in Latin America, they didn’t realize the immensity of their actions. As history has proven, the Europeans have imposed many things on the Latin American territory have had a long, devastating effect on the indigenous people. In the centuries after 1492, Europeans would control much of South America and impose a foreign culture upon the already established civilizations that existed before their arrival. These imposed ideas left the continent weak and resulted in the loss of culture, the dependence on European countries, and a long standing ethnic tension between natives and settlers which is evident even to this day. The indigenous people of South America, which

American attitudes towards Latin America can be summed up as an extension of larger global directives, and the exclusion of foreign powers in the region. This was highlighted especially during the Cold War as US involvement was essentially in competition with the USSR. Latin America was therefore a mere pawn in the larger context of US-Soviet competition for global dominance. The actions and methods used are also characterized by the lack of an international authority, or an atmosphere of inter-state anarchy, which shaped their calculations in the endeavor to increase their influence over Latin America. When one analyzes the situation, it seems only rational that the United States treated its southern neighbors so, due to the geographical

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the United States was the most dominant power in the Western Hemisphere. European nations conceded to the United States their right of any intervention in the Western Hemisphere and allowed the United States to do whatever they wanted. The United States took this newly bestowed power and abused it. The United States intervened in many Latin American countries and imposed their policies on to these countries against their will. A perfect example of this aggression is what occurred in the Dominican Republic in 1904. The United States intervened in this sovereign nation and took control of their economy and custom houses. A memorandum from Francis B. Loomis, the United States Assistant

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.

History of the region from the pre-Columbian period and including colonization by the Spanish and Portuguese beginning in the 15th century, the 19th-century wars of independence, and developments to the end of World War II.Latin America is generally understood to consist of the entire continent of South America in addition to Mexico, Central America, and the islands of the Caribbean whose inhabitants speak a Romance language. The peoples of this large area shared the experience of conquest and colonization by the Spaniards and Portuguese from the late 15th through the 18th centuries as well as movements of independence from Spain and Portugal in the early 19th century. Even since independence, many of the various

Our society has many ethical implications of socioeconomic inequalities. It is a social fact honestly, when people think about social inequality, they generally put social inequality in the terms of socioeconomic class. The United States has the largest gap in wealth. This gap causes people to start arguing about lower,middle, and upper class. Depression played a major role in the gap as well. People who have wealth and money have the top social standings in the society and enjoy the greatest privileges as brought on by their money and their social status. On the other hand, people who end up poor or have very little or no access to these high privileges and are usually marginalized in the terms of education and social services.

Universal basic income, (UBI), has become one our leading topics for a solution towards socioeconomic inequality. Billionaires such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, have advanced the idea of going through with UBI (Kaza, 2018). UBI tackles many diversity challenges our society seriously needs solutions too. However, due to the enormity of UBI, it’s important to evaluate our decision to go forward; not only finically but ethically. For governments to implement a UBI, it would take a major overhaul of their welfare and tax systems. For example, the United States would need to spend over 3 trillion dollars a year just to provide a yearly distribution of $12,000 for each person over 18. This does not include illegal immigrants or the cost of running the program. I will evaluate the potential effects and ethics of UBI on minority groups in three areas: gender inequality, social conflict and the effects of automation on the work force.

Poverty, or the inability to afford basic human needs, is an issue that is spread worldwide. There are people everywhere who cannot afford shelter, food, healthcare, or education. It seems easy enough to ignore the bum asking for change on the street, but it becomes near impossible in regions where whole families are begging on the street. This rings true in Latin America and it is extremely frustrating to see social inequality this extreme. This essay will examine how much poverty exists in Latin America, why the amount of poverty is so disproportionate and what can possibly be done to alleviate the amount of poverty in these countries.

Klasen, Stephan, and D., Felicitas. Nowak-Lehmann. Poverty, Inequality, and Policy in Latin America. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2009. Print.