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Of Jill Lepore's Essay 'The Age Of Inequality'

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In the essay “Richer and Poorer, Accounting for Inequality”, published on March 16, 2015, The New Yorker, Jill Lepore presents details proving the inequality in the United States. She references several materials like Robert Putnam’s book “Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis”, “Inequality: What Can Be Done?” by Anthony Atkinson, Steve Frazer’s “The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power”. She has also done other research about Gini’s index that represents the lack of equality in America through numbers. The author focuses on stories that can well describe the ugly picture of citizens in the country who don’t have the privilege for a better life and opportunities that the richer class gets to enjoy. Jill Lepore uses ethos, pathos, and logos as her strategy to touch her audience, inform them of the reality and call for action.
By using logos Ms. Lepore is introducing the ongoing problem of inequality to examining it and proposing solutions. She states “The evidence that income inequality in the United States has been growing for decades…” (1). This statement is supported by her research “Between 1975 and 1985 when the Gini index for U.S. households rose from .397 to .419” (1). Her argument that income inequality is real and “is nearing its breaking point” (2) is presented to the lower and …show more content…

Her work is only a tool to open the eyes of the audience to take responsibility. At this point, the problem exists and we are still trying to understand and accept it. We, as citizens of the United States, should be trying to fix it. The call for action is towards all the people who can admit to themselves that they may be the victims of the unfair game of wealth. Money and power are great for those who have it, but the problem will soon reach the once who can’t resist the growing gap and soon will fall

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In the essay “Richer and Poorer: Accounting for Inequality,” written by Jill Lepore, and published in The New Yorker in New York in 2015, the author raises awareness to the educated middle class about the many inequalities in the United States and the various causes and effects of such an issue. This writing was a proficient example of a job well done as far as the author’s use of rhetorical strategies is concerned. Jill Lepore was very effective in using logos, ethos, and pathos to serve her purpose of motivating the enlightened working class to make a change. Dr. Lepore accentuates her impeccable use of logos in this excerpt from “Richer and Poorer: Accounting for Inequality:” Between 1975 and 1985, when the Gini index for U.S. households

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