Examples Of Economic Inequality In America

Economic Inequality in America The purpose of this paper is to examine and evaluate a few of the factors that influence and affect economic inequality. Economic inequality is the varying factors that make up income inequality and wealth inequality. Also, Economic inequality is directly related to the wage gap. According to our class lecture there are two ways to measure income: earned and unearned. Earned income is the amount of money coming in to a household. Unearned income comes from assets such as property and/or investments. Inequality is obvious when looking at who in America has the ability to invest. The standard measure of economic status comes from a household's yearly earnings, “The bottom 50% of America only holds .5% of investments”

has a system set up to benefit the wealthy. There are many ways in which the top percenters can make more money; meanwhile, that means less for the bottom percentage earners. The system in place in the U.S. was built to help the rich. For example: the rich can hire lobbyist to go to the government and persuade them to vote in their interest. Lobbyists cannot directly pay politicians to vote in their way; that’s illegal. They can however, make a pretty substantial donation to the politician’s campaign. As mentioned above; over 50% of Americans could never afford this kind of

A lack of education usually means that those Americans without an education cannot easily get a job that pays well. If the average American without an education cannot get paid well, they also cannot afford other aspects of life. Even working full time at minimum wage is not enough to pay basic needs. Health care is one of the most important things a human can have, but the low income American gets paid a low salary, therefore, the funds are not available to go see a doctor. The lowest income holders in America can get Medicaid in most states, even while holding lower paying jobs. In Alabama, if you do not have a child under the age of 19, you do not qualify. If you have a child under the age of 19, you cannot make more than $151 a month (family of 2) for the adult to have coverage. The Americans who make too much for Medicaid, but cannot afford insurance, are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Loans and credit cards are sometimes needed for basics as well as lifesaving care. This puts the poor, again, in a place where they are losing more money, and stuck in poverty. Whereas, the rich or wealthy can simply pay the bills and go about their lives without having to worry about how they will feed their family or pay rent. Many of Americans bring in income below what is statistically needed, for earned income, to live above the poverty line. It was mentioned in class that in 2009, $22,050 was the poverty