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The Pros And Cons Of Wage And Wealth Inequality

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Wage and wealth inequality haven’t gotten better since the book was first published in 2000. Inflation has been flat, unemployment is low and getting lower, the economy is rewarding—depending on who you are— but the economy isn’t working for everyone, or even the majority of people. Spending and borrowing have risen, while savings have fallen. A large percent, which is going up, of people —especially those in their twenties and thirties— are working two jobs with little to no benefits. This means an increasing amount of people are living without insurance, postponing necessary medical treatments or ignoring symptoms as long as possible. The people at the bottom are used as scapegoats for this “polarized” economy— women on welfare and new immigrants— …show more content…

Despite this, compensation for the top managers of companies have skyrocketed, making half the population lose motivation at work. While the borrowing spree has boosted the economy with increased demand, savings rates have plummeted while the costs of health care, mortgages, and education have increased, increasing bankruptcies. We are taught to see these problems, which are numerous and linked to economic forces, as personal. There are alternatives, there were times when the US has been fairer, briefly, and rules of the economy have changed, such as the 1930s and 60s. The economy should be harmonious with the environment and foster greater democracy. The problem lies with how decisions are made. The vast majority of people are now excluded, the power is concentrated in the hands of those with wealth and influence, they decide the rules of …show more content…

While many might be aware of the wage gap between genders, there is also a wage gap between races —as seen in 1968 when every dollar of white income, black people earned 55 cents, which has not increased by much to around 58 cents in recent times. Beginning in the mid 1960s, there started to be larger inequality between classes of people of color where prosperous black people started to move ahead while lower-income black people started to go

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In her article ‘America without a Middle Class’, Elizabeth Warren reveals the hard time average families are going through in the United States right now. It seems as if the economy is against them. She provides statistics that show mortgages, bankruptcies, and the use of food stamps are on the rise; Warren paints a grim future for the economy. She highlights how the boom of the 2000s helped Wall Street but left everyone else struggling and no better off. Wages and job opportunities have plummeted, and it seems that at this moment the United States is not a land of great opportunity and fortune for most.

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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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Income Inequality Income Inequality or “wage gap” is a big topic for freedom fighters and liberals for the simple fact that it isn’t equal for everyone. Because the wage gap is so prominent it's one of the biggest “facts” that discrimination is still apart of everyday American society. The wage gap from these radical interest groups think the economy is get a dollar take a dollar instead of a free flow economy. This misguided idea of the economy is absolutely not true and isn’t at the fault of the Government, but the people.

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For the past few years, a topic that has been surfacing in the news is income inequality. Income inequality affects many people in the United States whether you believe it or not, whether its income inequality between men and women, tall men or short men, white Americans or minorities, and many more. However, a main topic that has many Americans attention and that affects more than half Americans is income distribution, or wealth inequality between Americans. Wealth Inequality in the United States is a problem that is not getting better any time soon and more Americans should realize it before it gets worse than it already is. Many Americans are unaware of how big of a gap there is between the rich and the poor people.

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An analysis from Pew Research Center shows the following: • Blacks still trail whites in college completion • The black-white income gap remains the largest across the races. • Blacks are twice as likely as whites to be poor. • Blacks are twice as likely as whites to be unemployed • The black unemployment rate today is double that of whites. Blacks and whites in America are living as two societies, one black and one white. Income and socio-economic status has a direct effect on the continued cycle of inequality among wage and earnings.

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The gender pay gap is a significant issue in the United States because it promotes institutional and internal sexism and the unfair treatment of human beings. An infamous statistic about the wage gap has been the 77 cent statistic, stating that for every dollar a man earns, a woman earns 77 cents. The statistic is calculated by, “...dividing the median earnings of full-time, year-round, working women by the median earnings of full-time, year-round, working men, all rounded to the nearest $100” (Glynn 2). This, however, represents males and females from all occupations, causing opponents to argue that, because it does not represent the gap between people who have the same job, a wage gap does not exist. Nonetheless, multiple studies have proven that a gender pay gap does exist within the United States.

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Household debt has also jumped 15% faster than income over the past dozen years, surpassing wage growth. Robert Reich coined the term “the basic bargain,” to describe the cycle of higher living standards, more jobs, and better wages that Americans experienced for most of the last century. Today, he states, the basic bargain has been broken. Workers are facing stagnating wages and employee pay as a share of the economy is now at its lowest in almost a hundred years. The wealthiest Americans attain their wealth through capital markets, while the majority Americans today cannot understand basic concepts such as compounding interest, mutual funds, and stock markets.

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Americans are embracing facts of inequalities and wage control, which has been a drawback in the American economy in the past, yet new policies have reduced inequalities by passing a law back in 2007 to raise wages, that is “Congress passed the first increase in the minimum wage within a decade” (574). That same embrace has the middle class preparing for the future by planning new strategies to educate their children about the dangers of debt to income ratio, gaps between social equality, and political power among the wealthy gaps. Also, unbalanced monetary stimulants, which have no power of motivation for some whom are after the American

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Another example of racial discrimination is shown through annual income. For instance, African American men that work full time and year round have merely 72 percent of the average earnings of white men that work full time and year round. This shows that there is clearly a correlation between race and income. This is commonly referred to as a “wage gap”. For African American women versus Caucasian women, the ratio is eighty-five

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E Even female and male do the same job, Male can be provided more chance to get more money. L :The wage gap can be even larger for women of color. For example, among women who hold full-time, year round jobs in the United States, Black women are typically paid 63 cents and Latinas are paid just 54 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic

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