Introduction:
The income gap hasn’t been this large since the Great Depression, an epidemic loss in stocks and investments, in the 1920’s. This significant event in history caused a great separation between classes because of the large loss in wealth that happened in the process. Even after the disaster of the event it was put to a halt, the great recession creeped in and created a lot of job losses in America in the 2000s. From then on, America has had a long history of income inequality. Income inequality isn’t just affecting the poor and the middle class, it’s affecting everyone. It’s ruining our economic system and our economic growth. The rate of taxation is slowly draining the lower class money and increasing the riches wealth.
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When there is a wide gap between the rich and everyone else it messes up our isn’t good for our economic system. The U.S. isn’t the only country that has income inequality it’s a global issue, but “The richest Americans, the top 1% made nearly 20% of all the available income in America last year... But what sets America apart is that in this time we have actively introduced policies disproportionately benefiting the wealthy like cutting income tax, and capitals gain tax rates for the richest in half...You would think in a democracy policies that benefit very few people at the expense of very many would not be able to succeed, but they have.” Living in a democracy you would think we would have strong democratic values, with everyone having equal opportunities, but we don’t. It’s a shame that the richer have discount on the taxes and everyone else has to pay more for taxes when they are the ones with less money.
Barack Obama did feel very strong about this topic and had talked about it in one of his speeches. “The combine trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility is a fundamental threat to the American dream, our way of life and what we stand for around the globe...I believe this is the defining challenge of our time.” Barack tried to get some politicians to help him with the problem, but no one was interested because of “class welfare”. “help me find a way to discuss the issue of inequality in our society without being accused of class warfare.” Class warfare is the conflict between the different social classes. Considering Obama couldn’t get any help with the issue he decided to switch to another topic. It seems income inequality is just going to be something that people bring up every once in a while. As John Oliver said, “Just because politicians can’t talk about income inequality doesn’t mean we shouldn’t.”, which I strongly agree with; let’s find the root of the problem and keep talking people!
"Wealth inequality, it turns out, has followed a spectacular U-shape evolution over the past 100 years. From the Great Depression in the 1930s through the late 1970s there was a substantial democratization of wealth. The trend then inverted, with the share of total household wealth owned by the top 0.1 percent increasing to 22 percent in 2012 from 7 percent in the late 1970s. The top 0.1 percent includes 160,000 families with total net assets of more than $20 million in 2012."- Chris Matthews
This is the largest gap between upper-income families and lower-income families in 30 years.
According to OECD ( Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) “In the United States, the average income of the richest 10% is 16 times as large as for the poorest 10%.” This information is even more important when you look what Fortune magazine said “The share of total income earned by the top 1 percent of families was less than 10 percent in the late 1970s but now exceeds 20 percent as of the end of 2012.” As time goes on these percentages are getting bigger and bigger and the gap between the rich and everyone is also getting larger. This gap is very crucial because we are talking about money, and money. equals power in this society. When the money gap gets larger, the power gap does as well; the wealthy will just have more control over everyone else.
According to OECD ( Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) “In the United States, the average income of the richest 10% is 16 times as large as for the poorest 10%.” This information is even more important when you look what Fortune magazine said “The share of total income earned by the top 1 percent of families was less than 10 percent in the late 1970s but now exceeds 20 percent as of the end of 2012.” As time goes on these percentages are getting bigger and bigger and the gap between the rich and everyone is also getting larger. This gap is very crucial because we are talking about money, and money. equals power in this society. When the money gap gets larger, the power gap does as well; the wealthy will just have more control over everyone else.
Podcast:
JR Radio: Interview with William Wilson a sociologists and professor from the University of Chicago.
chapter_2_podcast.mov | |
File Size: | 7013 kb |
File Type: | mov |
Bibliography:
Matthews, Chris. "Wealth Inequality in America: It’s Worse than You think." Fortune Wealth Inequality in America Its Worse than Youthink Comments. Fortune, 31 Oct. 2014. Web. 14 Jan. 2015.Matthews, Chris. "Wealth Inequality in America: It’s Worse than You think." Fortune Wealth Inequality in America Its Worse than Youthink Comments. Fortune, 31 Oct. 2014. Web. 14 Jan. 2015. http://fortune.com/2014/10/31/inequality-wealth-income-us/ (Links to an external site.)
Oliver, John. "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Wealth Gap (HBO)."YouTube. YouTube, 14 July 2014. Web. 14 Jan. 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfgSEwjAeno
Fry, Richard. "America’s Wealth Gap between Middle-income and Upper-income Families Is Widest on Record." Pew Research Center RSS. Pew Research Company, 17 Dec. 2014. Web. 12 Jan. 2015.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/12/17/wealth-gap-upper-middle-income/
Stone, Chad, Danilo Trisi, Arloc Sherman, and Brandon Debot. "Center on Budget and Policy Priorities." A Guide to Statistics on Historical Trends in Income Inequality --. Matrix Group International, 10 Dec. 2014. Web. 14 Jan. 2015.
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3629
Gilson, Dave, and Carolyn Perot. "It's the Inequality, Stupid." Mother Jones. Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Congress, Apr. 2011. Web. 14 Jan. 2015.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph
Oliver, John. "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Wealth Gap (HBO)."YouTube. YouTube, 14 July 2014. Web. 14 Jan. 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfgSEwjAeno
Fry, Richard. "America’s Wealth Gap between Middle-income and Upper-income Families Is Widest on Record." Pew Research Center RSS. Pew Research Company, 17 Dec. 2014. Web. 12 Jan. 2015.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/12/17/wealth-gap-upper-middle-income/
Stone, Chad, Danilo Trisi, Arloc Sherman, and Brandon Debot. "Center on Budget and Policy Priorities." A Guide to Statistics on Historical Trends in Income Inequality --. Matrix Group International, 10 Dec. 2014. Web. 14 Jan. 2015.
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3629
Gilson, Dave, and Carolyn Perot. "It's the Inequality, Stupid." Mother Jones. Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Congress, Apr. 2011. Web. 14 Jan. 2015.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph