Paul Krugman author of the article “Confronting Inequality” stresses the inequality of our social classes in the United States, he uses statistics to demonstrate the staggering consequences of this inequality within our social classes. Krugman emphasizes the fact that a majority of our wealth is owned by about one percent of the population, which is leaving the middle and lower class at an extreme disadvantage. One example Krugman uses is education; children that have wealthy families, have a higher percentage of finishing college than those of lower income families, proving the statement that Krugman was accentuating, “Class-inherited class- usually trumps talent.” The parents within this middle to lower class have been exceed their financial
Charles Murray, a conservative academic, has noted how a powerful upper class has separated itself from the rest of society. For Democrats, and those who more generally define themselves as progressive, economic inequality is generally central to this concern. Typically, they criticise the ostentatious and heartless super-rich for detaching itself from the rest of society. Levin recognises that high inequality is a reality but is surely right to argue that it is an effect rather than a cause. The wealthy, for instance, have benefited from the booming of the financial sector and financial assets over the
In Tobias Wolff’s story, “The Rich Brother,” the author depicts the relationship of two opposite brothers. While one brother, Pete, is seemingly content with his financial prosperity and wealthy lifestyle, the other, Donald, finds no comfort in such things. As Pete struggles to tolerate Donald’s outlook on life, Donald struggles to find his place in the world spiritually while avoiding concerning himself with the financial aspect of it. For some this spiritual sense of completion Donald seeks is more valuable to them than any financial one, while others, like Pete, find comfort in the life they live through material wealth. Although Pete’s lifestyle lacks a spiritual aspect, he is the “richer” brother since he has obtained the way of life he desired to have the most, not due to the fact that this desired lifestyle stems from much physical wealth.
Wealth has formed an enormous gap in the society. As a country, the people are as separated as oil and water. “The wealthy class is becoming more wealthy; but the poorer class is becoming more dependent. Social contrasts are becoming sharper” (Doc A), to distinguish the poor from the rich has become extremely effortless.
horizontal) reflects their consciousness of the diversity in societies they seek to uplift. On one hand, although Carnegie writes that “[h]uman society loses homogeneity” (“Wealth”), he only mentions the economic disparities creating a “problem of Rich and Poor” (“Wealth”). This binary understanding of the division of society is reflected by his repeated use of terms like “the masses” (Carnegie, “Wealth”), and offers insight into Carnegie’s vision of social uplift. Indeed, he doesn’t mention any tailored actions for subgroups of the mass, whose needs and existence are completely flattened by his
Melanie Castellanos Daniels ENGL 3 - B5 26 August 2014 Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America: Merit of Experiences Although much criticism revolves around Barbara Ehrenreich’s experiences as a minimum wage worker, it can be widely recognized by various critics that she deserves credit for at least attempting to understand the lower class, considering her privilege as a white, wealthy, middle-aged woman. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America is a novel regarding minimum wage workers and a single woman’s experience jumping into the lower class; the overall theme of the book is that even the lowest class deserve more credit for their hard work, long hours, and demeaning lifestyles. Overall, Ehrenreich is praised for her bravery to dive into a minimum wage lifestyle. Although at first it seems demeaning for such a wealthy and
I chose the above paragraph, because it really dawns on you the daily cost of living and struggles faced by the working-class people. “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich is an eye opener, as it helps you get a glimpse into the lives of the working-class people and the many hardships endured by them on a daily basis. It is appalling to learn that so many people do not even have access to proper nutrition and healthcare, which I think should be a basic necessity and not a luxury. These people work hard and have absolutely nothing to show for. California is an excellent example of the great divide between the rich and poor, with the middle class almost non-existent.
In Rachel Sherman’s “A Very Expensive Ordinary Life: Conflicted Consumption,” the argument centres around the “legitimization” of wealth by the New York’s upper class in order to be seen as not only rich, but morally worthy. The possession of great wealth alongside their less fortunate peers could be uncomfortable also for those that hold the city’s riches. Hence, New York’s affluent has “legitimized” their wealth and consumption, or on a more macro level, the inequality between the social classes in the city in order to feel more comfortable in their spending, and to manage the impression of the wealthy in the eyes of the greater public in the much morally contested behaviour of lavish spending in an unequal society. This is supported throughout the reading by the justification of excessive spending and consumption by the claim that the rich live an “ordinary” life. The need that they feel towards justifying their spending comes to show that their amount of spending is excessive in the eyes of the ordinary person, in which they also acknowledge themselves as well.
The rich use tactics to gain the support of the middle class, but without losing any of their own riches, like wealth or power, for their own gain. It was at the cost of the “slaves, Indians, and poor whites” (Zinn 1). It spared the rich any expenses, but brought them much gain, from the support. Finally, the growth of the colonies positively impacted the rich as well, as they received the profits and benefits from the expansions. With one percent of property owners owning forty four percent of the wealth, it shows how the majority of the wealth was given to the rich, and not distributed among the other classes at all, deepening the division.
The meaning of the free enterprise on trial means to achieve success by hardwork and taking risks. In his book, “From beyond Outrage”, Robert Reich speaks about how wealth is concentrated among the top wealthiest people in American leading to a wide gap between the rich and poor by increasing inequalities in income. This has not only disgusted Reich, but he is outraged too with the statistics that suggest how the top rich Americans are only getting richer, while those at the bottom of the line are suffering. The inequality gap has grown consistently over the years in America making more than half of the public change their opinion about the wealthy families in U.S. People now believe that those with money need to be taxed heavily and there should be an equal re-distribution of wealth.
Jeffrey Reiman, author of The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison, first published his book in 1979, it is now in its sixth edition, and he has continued to revise it as he keeps up on criminal justice statistics and other trends in the system. This book he wrote is like a textbook for the class with many different sources cited to give the thorough knowledge for criminal justice major. As we read through the book we will get to know that he figured out something very deeply about cultural sense, which helped him a lot to collect public information. The main focus of this book is the title itself, because the rich get richer and the poor get prison, says a lot, which is happening in the country due to our present economic system. In this system author is trying to define the true definition of crime and criminal, uneven wealth distribution, poverty and criminal justice system that does to protect us against the gravest
Malcolm Gladwell writes a powerful book in Outliers that really makes us think about success and what it takes to be successful. Gladwell’s claim that the upper middle class has more opportunities than the poor rests upon the questionable assumption that individuals with an upper middle class background do not have to work hard to be successful. Therefore, we should reconsider Gladwell’s claim because successful people still had to work hard and seize those opportunities. I still believe that we can better ourselves and have a better life than what we started with.
The Outsiders, written by the brilliant author S.E.Hinton is about the conflict between two rival gangs, the greasers, and the Socs. The main protagonist, Ponyboy is a greaser, who is portrayed as poor and distinguished by their greasy hair. Whereas the Socs is portrayed as rich and distinguished by their rich clothes and cars. The interesting part, however, is that Cherry Valance, a soc, described the Socs to be emotionless and apathetic, which led them to use violence to express their feelings. On the other side, Cherry characterized the greasers to be too emotional which led them to antagonize the Socs and causing conflicts.
In 1890, America was seen by millions of immigrants across the globe as the “Land of opportunity”. The place where anyone could become rich if they worked hard enough, equity was evenly distributed to all, and all could live comfortable and enjoyable lives. While for some this dream became a reality, the vast majority of these immigrants were dirt poor, living in cramped unsanitary living conditions, and working low paying, dead end jobs to scrape by while trustees sat on millions of dollars and lived lavish lives. This period of American history is simply known as the “Gilded Age” because although it was a time of prosperity for the US economy, life wasn’t as “golden” for the vast majority of the US population as it was made out to be. This
The article says, “While the top 1 percent have seen their incomes rise 18 percent over the past decade, those in the middle have actually seen their incomes fall.” (Stiglitz 2011) While the rich are getting higher incomes prices the poor are getting higher income by taking it from the one in the middle which therefore, makes them get a lower income percentage. America has fallen behind because of not being an equal country to the population by the income equality there is a huge gap between the income being earned by the poor and the rich. The rich are wealthy and the poor depend on the government for everything. As stated in the article, “America lags behind any country in the old, ossified Europe that President George W. Bush used to deride.
