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Essay On Poverty In America

745 Words3 Pages

America has improved in many aspects, but we still face many injustices. One of the largest problems being our economic situation. On one end of the spectrum, people will make as much money in one month as some people do in a lifetime. On the other hand, there are people in our society struggling to put food on their families table every night. About fourteen percent of the country is a below the poverty line appose to the top one percent who will never have to worry if they will eat that day or not. It is economically selfish that the top one percent will make on minimum four hundred thousand dollars’ year and the bottom fourteen percent will never make a quarter of that in their lifetime. To have a fair economic system, we must establish a system that help out those in poverty by making everyone equal. After analyzing works from authors like Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Steinbeck, specialization seems to be the best option to provide a fair and just economic system. …show more content…

“Those ten persons, therefore, could make among them upwards of forty-eight thousand pins in a day. Each person, therefore, making a tenth part of forth-eight thousand pins. Might be considered as making a four thousand eight hundred pins in a day” (Smith, 264). Meaning that if everyone does their part, they can achieve more as a whole in the end. Everyone would end up making the same, because they all contributed the same amount of work. Smith believes that people should have specialized jobs in society to help make everyone more equal. He believes that growing as a country is more beneficial than growing as individuals. If there is growth as a country, there would be more possibilities of jobs opening. Therefore, people would get more jobs and make more money, shrinking the poverty rate in the United

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The problem with income inequality is that the majority of Americans can’t live their lives the way they want to. America’s workforce doesn’t make enough money to support the economy in a healthy way. According to the U.S. census data, about half of America’s population lives in poverty

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Furthermore, one of Smith’s biggest achievements through The Wealth of Nations is the division of labour for efficient production. He discovered that workers will be more efficient if they are responsible for one specific task instead of moving around in the assembly line, which would essentially result in wasting time. Furthermore, he also stated the efficiency would generate additional profits and this money would be reinvested in technology that would allow for a more efficient production process. The consumers would benefit from as this would bring the labour prices down, and therefore the cost of the product itself. Adam Smith’s version of capitalism is ideal, with little to no flaws, however, his work tends to ignore other influences that can have a negative impact on the system.

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There are people who work 40 hours a week and are still in poverty; this is a highly prominent issue. The uneven distribution of wealth, known as wealth inequality, is a problem that plagues not only America but also the world. With wealth inequality, there are two main issues and one solution to those issues. The problems are that the wealth in America is unevenly distributed and there people in America who work 40 hours a week and still have very little money. Wealth inequality is the root of all problems faced in America.

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There are many causes for poverty in America. According to Pusuegod.org, the common causes of poverty are “poor economy, drug use and lack of education”. In addition, debts and medical expenses. Having a poor economy can ruin people’s life because people depend on the economy. When the economy goes down people have limited resources and may have to ration out their food and money.

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Smith mentioned that “The division of labour, however, so far as it can be introduced, occasions, in every art, a proportionable increase of the productive powers of labour.” (Smith, p. 110). Such a phenomenon would no doubt result in an increase in productivity due to the specialisation of jobs with increased efficiency in doing work. However, due to the specialisation of jobs, the people in society would then be subjected to job positions with varying levels in wages, which could result in income inequality in the society. Furthermore, Smith added “This separation, too, is generally carried furthest in those countries which enjoy the highest degree of industry and improvement” (Smith, p. 111).

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Smith says, “as it is by treaty, by barter, and by purchase, that we obtain from one another the greater part of those mutual good offices which we stand in need of, so it is this same tuckering disposition which originally gives occasion to the division of labour,” (Smith 2000:16). Smith shows that people have more wonts and needs that have to be obtained in different ways. The production needs and skill are far to great for one single person to make for themselves. Smith claims that capitalism naturally came out o the need for goods. This need for goods resulted in the increase in specialization and productivity which Smith calls the division of labour.

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