Income Inequality In The 1920s

“A quarter of American employees make about $10 per hour, which creates an income below the Federal poverty level. These are the people who provide basic services for us on a daily basis: cashiers, fast food workers, and nurse's aides.” In the 1920’s and today, there are many cases in which families don't have sufficient income to obtain a substantial lifestyle. Now taking this into perspective, during the 1920’s this led to the Great Depression, and this event foreshadowed what has occurred today? Those who are affected by the income inequality have taken a different path from American Dream. Over the past 30 years, the gap between the citizens with an opulent lifestyle and the rest of the population has been growing distinctly by every major statistical measures. In the 1920’s and the current decade the general income inequality has both similarities and differences.

The middle class income growth was suspended while the incomes of those at the top continued to rise dramatically. Such a high level of inequality is not only conflicting with widely held standards of social justice, but it poses a serious threat to America's economy and democracy. “In the 1920s, it was expansion of farm credit, installment loans and home mortgages. In the last decade, it was leveraged borrowing and lending, by home buyers who putno money down or investment banks that lent out $30 for each $1 held.” Since the income inequality during the 1920s laborers in farming, coal mines, and textile mins suffered from a lack of sufficient technology. However in this generation, we face problems such as higher unemployment rates, social instability, and reduced