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Inequality And The American Dream Essay

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Inequality and the American Dream The main claim of this article is about inequality. America’s economy is growing larger but not benefiting the poor and middle class as it is the wealthy. While the rich are getting richer, the middle class are only slightly benefiting while the poor are in a stagnant state. American economics needs to change in ways that benefit all of Americans and not just the wealthy. The article claims that the true guilty party is not inequality but meritocracy. “Inequality is not inherently wrong—as long as three conditions are met: first, society as a whole is getting richer; second, there is a safety net for the very poor; and third, everybody, regardless of class, race, creed or sex, has an opportunity to climb …show more content…

“the answer has to be broader than just “trade-adjustment” assistance or tax breaks for hard-hit areas. Healthcare, for instance, needs reform. America's traditional way of providing it through companies is crumbling. The public pension system, too, needs an overhaul.” Lastly, the education system, especially in deprived regions, needs to be prioritized and given the items needed for the children to prosper. Children from poverty-stricken families have a more difficult time climbing up through the economic system and creating good careers for themselves, “Only 3% of students at top colleges come from the poorest quarter of the population. Poor children are trapped in dismal schools, while richer parents spend ever more cash on tutoring their offspring.” For the poor to be able to rise out of poverty there must be a good education system and means of support to help them on the way. This truth is one point the writer makes and states that education is, “the engine of American meritocracy”, the key to a fair meritocracy

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President Barack Obama writes a very informative article on the subject of inequality within the article, “A Fundamental Threat to the American Dream”. President Obama’s goal is to inform the audience about the inequality between those who are born into rich families compared to the middle and under class families. He starts by comparing statistics of economic growth between the rich and the poor in 1979, the year he graduated high school, to the current year the article was written. Between these two dates, economic growth has been tipped to benefit the rich. With newer technology, it has caused the the size of the labor force to decrease and the wealth gap to increase.

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As the middle class continues to dissolve, the issue in America becomes more chaotic. The article, "The Inequality Hype", by Neil Gilbert, criticizes, quite simply, the hype on the income inequality between the classes in America. Although Gilbert does agree on the inequality present, he brings up many good points as to why this issue is more exaggerated than should be. Gilbert brings up the point that America is doing better than it believes to be doing according to recent data. Moreover, Gilbert explains, "Progressives tend to think that inequality is the story and that, as already noted, nearly everything wrong in U.S. society stems from it. ..

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What makes people unequal to others in their mind? Many think others are unequal because they are simply different from them. The possibilities on being different from another person are almost infinite, but most often, and not limited to, are race, religion, gender, sexuality, or just being an outcast. Looking at just the United States, it is a huge melting pot based on immigration throughout history. Being an immense melting pot is a blessing and a curse; while it creates cultural diversity, it also creates discrimination, which America is notoriously known for.

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“The nation's middle class, long a pillar of the U.S. economy and foundation of the American dream, has shrunk to the point where it no longer constitutes the majority of the adult population, according to a new major study” (Lee). This is showing that the American dream opportunity as a whole is shrinking. This is due to there becoming a shrinking amount of people who are middle. The Census Bureau says “41.5% of americans brought home between 35,000 and $100,000 in the year 2015” (Lee). It is still shrinking daily.

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Robert Bunnett Professor Ramos-Bernal POLS 110 5/17/15 Income Inequality in the United States People have always referred to the United States of America as being the land of opportunity. Americans strive for something called “The American Dream.” Some people believe that they have achieved this dream. However, there are many people in America that have had so many problems economically that this “dream” has become out of reach.

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Such as society as a whole is prospering, there is help for the very poor, and there is an equal ability for all people to rise up in the economic system. "Any system in which the spoils are distributed so unevenly is morally wrong, they say. This newspaper disagrees. Inequality is not inherently wrong-as long as three conditions are met: first, society as a whole is getting richer; second, there is a safety net for the very poor; and third, everybody, regardless of class, race, creed or sex, has an opportunity to climb up through the system. A dynamic, fast-growing economy may sometimes look ugly, but it offers far more hope than a stagnant one for everybody in the United

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The middle class has dealt with the rise of the inequality by talking about it. Inequality is a problem because it affect the America’s purchasing power and, therefore, affecting the rate of employment and the economic growth. The middle class is major contributor to the economic growth. Explain who are the "winners" in today’s economy?

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The United States of America, is known to be one of the richest and most powerful countries in the world. It has often been referred to by many as a global melting pot or as locals may say callaloo, due to the amassing of diverse ethnicities, cultures and nationalities. Within its borders, resides immigrants or descendants of immigrants from almost every region in the world, and each has in some way added to the American culture and way of life. America is known for its stance on freedom, it is a nation that values equality and justice, this can be noted in the last few words of their national anthem ‘indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’ However, for many, high levels of economic and social inequalities are daily struggles, a battle that has been fought for decades to claim the most basic rights, in the pursuit of achieving the American Dream.

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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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America, the beautiful, the great, the land of opportunity, has become the land of the opportunistic. The promise of the ‘American dream’ is to some a living nightmare. America has neglected its pledge to its citizens, and it is the responsibility of Americans to ensure the promise is no longer forgotten. How to DO away with poverty? Step 1: Create a living wage.

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“As the wealthy earned more, someone else in America had to get less” (CNN), income inequality in America has truly gotten out of hand, the rich has recovered and has grown in wealth, while the bottom half of society are suffering and barely making ends meet. The gap between the two is tremendously an issue that affects all Americans, “top 1% adults earned on average 27 times more than bottom 50% adults, while they earn 81 times more today” (CNN). Many political officials have come up with solutions to try to even out income inequality in America but how can we truly find a solution that will ensure all Americans are able to live above the poverty line. What is income inequality? “Income inequality is the unequal distribution of household or individual income across the various participants in an economy” (Investopedia), the number amount of how income is distributed in our economy is the image that our society portrays.

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3.1 How income inequality affect on people live in America. The income gap in America affects people, who live in this country. The issue has a strong impact in America’s society; in particular, the nutritional disparity between rich and poor people. In USA, the food gap becomes the top signal for the class distinction, but it used to be clothing or fashion. The food inequality in America is not only influencing the poverty, it is also cost hundreds of billions of dollar per year because of Non Communicable Diseases (NDCs) (Ferdman, 2014).

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America prides itself on being one of the most effective democratically governed counties. The idea of the American dream is that all people have equivalent political freedoms and a responsive government. However the effectiveness of social equality is being threatened by increasing inequality in the United States. Economic inequality in the US has expanded drastically. The wealth gap has had drastic changes over the past 35 years.

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Wealth and Inequality in America Inequality The inequality in America has increased over time; the gap between the rich and the poor has become a problem that many Americans don’t see. Inequality is the extent of income which is distributed unequally among the citizenry. The inequality of the United has a large gap between the poor and the rich making it unfair to the population, the rich are becoming wealthier and the poor remain poor. The article “Of the 1%, By the 1%, For the 1%”, authored by Joseph E. Stiglitz describes that there is a 1 percent amount of American’s who are consuming about a quarter of the United States income in a year.

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Although, the American Dream possess different challenges itis still an encouraging goal to achieve, many are challenged through the education system as they take the plunge into future endeavors of academics, which is used as a path to equality among the wealth gap in America. Since the American dream is still alive and the pursuit of equality remains in high hopes; many of today’s general public are after the same thing in reference to American equality; however, the standards of living may differ from one person’s perspective to another. Additionally, some feel that the American Dream has demised over the past forty years. In fact, polling numbers have shown that there is a huge increase in inequality of income gap between gender differences and ethnic diversity in the United States, one reason to accept these facts is a study done in the United States between 1970 and 2005, which proves that the American Dream has income gaps among the studied groups (584).

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