Essays on Income Inequality

American Public University

Poverty is defined as lack of access to the resources necessary for survival due to low level of income earnings in a household. The different countries have different thresholds for defining the poverty. UNDP accepts people who earn less than 1 dollar a day as the poverty threshold and the Millennium Goals of the United Nations aim at reducing the number of people earning less than 1 dollar a day (UNDP, 2017). Recently, sustainable economic development is discussed among the academicians and the professionals. Fast economic growth has been the main aim of many emerging economies in the last ...

Austerity Policy Measures in the UK

Introduction The process of putting into place strategic measures with an aim of reducing of deficit and increasing economic growth in the United Kingdom has taken a paradigm shift from various aspects. The government of UK has put deficit reduction measures, which entail a series of strategically sustained reductions in public expenditure, undertaken towards a reduction of the government budget deficit and the UK’s welfare state. The design of this research paper is structured towards assessing the rationale on which the UK’s austerity policy is based with regards to deficit reduction and stimulation of economic growth (Burns, ...

Introduction

Risks and benefit with leading the market in overall compensation and benefits Upholding internal and external equity in compensation and benefits Internal and external equity is an important component of compensation and benefits system since it assures employees of fairness in base pay and additional benefits. Party Supplies employees are more likely to compare their pay to that of others performing similar roles in other firms and reflect on the fairness and equity. For this case, therefore, the company needs to carry out salary surveys across organizations to determine the average and slightly adjust its rates to be lead ...

(Student’s Full Name)

Introduction According to the Associated Press, there were more poor people residing in the state of Washington in 2013 compared to the previous year. This was the case despite the poverty levels remaining steady “across the nation” (Le par. 1). In addition, the United Way has recently revealed in a “comprehensive report” that “1 in 3” Washington households “struggle financially” (Hobbs pars. 1, 22). The experts have arrived at their own conclusions as to why that it is currently the case in the state. However, even though the cause of poverty in Washington State has ...

Dan Price read in an article that employee happiness will increase when they are less stressed due to financial problems (Cohen, 2015). The result of this article is that Price publicly declared a planned increase in the compensation income of Gravity Payment employees, which will reach a minimum of $70,000 at the end of three years (Cohen, 2015). The problem with this perception is that it is contradicted by the study of Stevenson and Wolfers (2009, p.33) where the level of employee happiness within the United States will not increase despite an improvement in their income. Other studies ...

When it comes to income inequality, there is evidence that counties with poorer neighborhoods receive less tax funds for public schools. According to the Department of Education, the richest 25% of school districts receive 15% more funds from states than poorer ones (Barshay, 2015). Federal funds have helped eliminated that gap. However, the Federal Government is not meant to be an equalizer (Barshay, 2015). Within states, tax funds are usually distributed based on property taxes. Those districts that pay more in taxes naturally should receive more funds in return. Residents can actually be charged with a crime if they ...

Paul Fryes discusses how the American politicians ignore the problems of the Black people as one of the largest disadvantaged groups in the world and how the Black people cannot create a response to the ignorant politicians by developing a political strategy as a group of all Black voters. As known, political parties give attention to the groups providing a financial contribution to their campaigns, the size of voters in the group, and loyalty of voters in the group. The main aim is to collect the highest possible financial support and collect most of the votes for politicians. The ...

American Public University

In this paper, I will discuss the real estate industry development and inefficient use of financial resources in Turkey. Also, the real estate sector causes some damages in nature and misuse of a natural resource. The biggest problem is the short term vision planning businesses have been granted some advantages by the Turkish governments from 1984 to 2016 and the financial markets in Turkey has not been well-developed, and it causes inefficient use of funds. One of the industries using financial resources inefficiently is the real estate business (Finkel & Ersoy, 2016). The population has started increasing rapidly after the ...

Introduction

The United States is one of the most developed countries, but it is also one of the countries with the highest level of income inequality. According to research, more than half of the nation’s income goes to only 5% of the population, while the remaining half is shared by the 95%. One way of measuring a nation’s income inequality is through the Gini coefficient. The Gini coefficient measures income inequality on a scale of 0 to 1 wherein 0 corresponds to total equality; a scenario wherein everyone is earning the same amount while 1 corresponds to total ...

According to both the political elites, academic consensus and the never ceasing babble of the chattering classes, the defining challenge of the moment in Western culture is economic inequality. President Obama has spoken time and again about the challenges posed by gaps between the rich and everyone else and his arguments have been supported by ceaseless references to the growing divide between the top one percent and everyone else. Though hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of dire poverty over the last 25 years by the dynamic forces of capitalism and its spread to developing nations, ...

American Labor Market Overview and Trends

Labor market is one of the most important parts of any national economy, and USA is not an exception. The US Labor market has few significant trends that show how it was developed in the past and how it will be looks like in future. Unemployment rate analysis, job growth rate, and income analysis – these are the major sectors of Labor market that could represent its general overview. First of all, the unemployment rate should be analyzed. If we look on past two decades as for analyzed period, we will definitely see two major period of US Labor market ...

Introduction

It is imperative to note that productivity growth is an aspect that is often used by economists to gauge the performance of an economy. In evaluating the living standards of a country in the long-term, the efficiency with which capital and labor are combined has a significant role to play. However, it is worth noting that productivity alone cannot be relied on to measure the performance of an economy as it is inefficient. The concept has made most analysts to focus on other features such as labor productivity, a figure that is often arrived at by dividing the total ...

Introduction

It is true that there is a significant disparity between the American in terms of classes in the United States today. The gap between the upper class and the lower class has been increasing, whereas the middle starts to fade away. Dating back to early 1990s, almost half of the national income growth of the nation was owned only the top 1 percent of the richest families. The escalating gap between the two groups is attributed to the ever increasing income to the wealthiest 1 percent and stagnant income for the middle American households. Therefore, the middle and the ...

Introduction

In past few years, one of the most significant developments in the world economy is the emergence of India and China as major forces in the global economy. The constant growth of these countries is expected to dominate the economy of the whole world for several decades. Both countries contribute as more than one-third of the world’s population. Since 1980, both economies have been successful in achieving remarkable poverty reduction and economic growth rate. In respect of economic growth, it seems that China and India both are similar as both of these countries have large geographies and populations. ...

Introduction

The Canadian labor market is abundant with skilled and qualified workers, and hence, the country’s labor market is becoming increasingly competitive. In this context, it is necessary for the government to ensure that all these candidates are employed and getting paid fairly. However, it is identified that Canada’s unemployment rate soared high during the recent recession and it has not yet recovered completely. Since Canada is a well-developed country, it is particularly important for the Canadian federal government to analyze the short-term as well as long-term costs of high unemployment rate to the country’s economy. This ...

Introduction The Stanford Centre on Poverty and Inequality is a federally-funded poverty institution that focuses on monitoring inequality and poverty trends in the U.S. (Grusky et al., 2016). The centre examines the factors and forces that influence the trends and develop science-based policy on inequality and poverty. The “State of the Union: The Poverty and Inequality Report 2016” suggests that the U.S. ranks poorly when compared with other well-off nations (Grusky et al., 2016). The report is compiled by some of the leading global experts on inequality and poverty. Besides, the report encompasses data on employment, poverty, economic mobility, ...

[Class Title]

Income Inequality in America

Introduction Income inequality is one of the most observable trends in the American society today. There are, for instance, super rich Americans with the resources that are exceedingly high compared to the average American wage earner. Over the years, the disparity between the rich and the poor in terms of income has been widening and it is widening rapidly. Income inequalities have become exceedingly unacceptable that it has become one of the most controversial and talked about topic in contemporary American society. In fact, this coming 2016 United States presidential election, one of the key issues is ...

Impact of Education, Employment and Income (Socio-Economic Conditions) on Health: Applied Multivariate Statistics in Public Affairs

Impact of Education, Employment and Income (Socio-Economic Conditions) on Health: Applied Multivariate Statistics in Public Affairs

Introduction

The present study concerns itself with identification and development of a set of predictive factors for state or condition of overall health in a give country or region. With increasing population and strain on natural as well as human resources, various stress and genealogical health issues are emerging as threats to public health. In this context the work done in this study can be pivotal in an international context. As it attempts and paves way for a establishment of an empirical base for ...

Wall Street Journal,

New York. Dear Sir, The article by Thu Lam Vo and Zumbrun on May 11, 2016, on the nature of jobs added to the U.S. market since recession points out some peculiar features in the USA economy regarding the amplifying income inequality. The quality of jobs available and remuneration determine the economic mobility of the citizens. The authors opined that since the recession period, the low wage companies have been increasing while the middle-wages industries shrunk. More people work part-time or for minimum wage than a decade ago. It is this problem that is amplifying income inequality. Rakesh Kochhar ...

In this paper, Bob Meister conducts an in-depth look at the public university situation in the US at the moment considering its major issues and the conditions that led to the current situation. The exploration is conducted with a special emphasis on California State as it provides a perfect historical overview of the education system as it changed from a model system to the where it is currently.

Privatization is the Problem, Not the Solution

There has been a consensus that taxpayer funding for colleges has reduced and therefore it is “unrealistic” for the universities to depend on state funding as this relies ultimately on the ...

Many Latinos from South America, Central America, and Mexico have made decisions to either legally or illegally to immigrate into the United States of America over the past decades. Similarly, many Asian populations have migrated into the United States of America either legally or illegally. For decades, film makers have been capturing the experiences and stories of the immigrants in the United States of America. The exponential increase in the number of the immigrants over the past decades has led to the surge of high-quality documentaries, like Crossing Arizona, produced in the year 2006. In this film, varying degrees ...

Over the last few decades, the level of economic inequality has significantly increased, especially in the OECD countries (John 7). Essentially, the top earning population has acquired a large share of the overall gains in income. Fundamentally, there has been an increasing consensus that major assessment on the level of economic performance should not be based solely on income growth, but the distribution of income. Such assessments are highly concerned with the level of both economic and income inequality. Economic inequality measurements have numerous dimensions, and economists view it in terms of monetary assessments related to incomes for individual ...

ECON 4331W

Introduction The phrase "the rich get richer while the poor get poorer" has become a worldwide anthem at many political and economic forums. While these facts are actually true very few or practically no one goes forward to act in a manner seen to strike a balance if anything many individuals are individualistic and greedy. Elite economists from IMF recently released a study on the causes and consequences of rising income inequalities. It is believed as a result of income inequality there could arise a myriad of complex problems, most of which touch and significantly impact upon the economic ...

Income Inequality between Countries

Introduction This paper asserts that the income inequality between developed and developing countries increases over time. Developing countries will not be able to catch up with developed countries because of differences in technological advancement. Technology has a bearing on the nature of output and skills that a country has for its production. Therefore, developed countries will produce technologically advanced products such as computers because they have both the resource endowment of both physical and human capital in those sectors. On the contrary, developing countries that have abundant unskilled labor will supply unskilled labor intensive goods and agricultural goods that ...

Introduction

Sustained huger and food insecurity are harmful to all individuals, but hunger is primarily disruptive to children. Good nutrition is of the utmost importance to a child’s growth and wellbeing. Not having enough of the right kinds of food can have serious consequences for a child’s physical and mental health, educational accomplishments and future economic success. One in five kids is facing difficulties in achieving his or her full potential. Hunger among children in America is due to prevailing states of poverty, rather than the availability of food itself (DoSomething.org). Income inequality and the continued marginalization of ...

Term Paper

There are different types of societies around the world. Each of these societies has its unique economic and political structure and systems. The term economic structure is used to define the varying balance of output, income, trade and employment that is drawn from various sectors of the economy. These range from primary farming, mining, and fishing to secondary construction and processing industries and the tertiary sector. On the other hand, political structures are the groups or institutions and their associations with each other including the interaction patterns within political systems and regulations. Changes in economic and political structures bring ...

Income Inequality

Abstract The purpose of this research paper is to establish income inequality as a serious socio-economic issue. The views of various social and economic writers have been explored to prove that the unfairly effects the low income class. A critical examination is made regarding inequality of opportunities available to low income class, as compared to the higher ones. Several studies conducted by prestigious institutions are cited to back the claim that income inequality hinders economic growth by increasing poverty and unemployment. Other aspects, such as the effects on the affordability of education and healthcare, are uncovered. An evaluation of ...

Tyler Cowen’s “The Inequality that Matters”, published in the January-February 2011 issue of The American Interest Magazine, addresses the type of income inequality that Americans, and people all over the globe, should be concerned about. Most people, Cowen says, are unaware of the bigger, economic picture, and are instead more concerned about their neighbors’ income status. According to Cowen (2011), the American economy may collapse again because of an unstable economic situation in China and Europe, undercapitalized banks, or because the economic system is broken – and no one no one quite knows how to fix it. Cowen (2011) ...

The documentary from the PBS and Frontline with the title Two American families, is presenting the ordinary and middle income families over the time period of 22 years. The documentary was released in the year 2013. The documentary wanted to present the reality of the American dreams to have a family, own a house and have a steady income with the possibility of retirement at older age. The efforts of two American families the Nuemanns and the Stanleys to succeed in two decades despite the hard work did not work out. It shows that despite the race all middle ...

Abstract

The mainstream economic theory holds that globalization is beneficial for every country, both developing and developed. However, the mainstream view relies on the comparative advantage theory, which embraces many unrealistic assumptions such as free mobility of labor and sustainable trade. These assumptions lead to adverse effects to countries that adopt globalization without a strategic plan. Importantly the U.S. is experiencing loss of jobs, an imbalance in income distribution and unfair competition due to globalization. These impacts arise when companies shift their production process to cheap labor zones and due to increased demand for skilled labor. This paper has four ...

The United States in the eyes of Europeans was an amazing country where democracy prevailed, instead of a monarchy, with no division into classes. In the United States, there was the freedom of conscience and tolerance. Thus, Americans have unprecedented freedom for the rest of the world. At that time of the Golden Youth and Great Gatsby the American Dream arose. It had its causes and long-lasting effects. The essay is going to discuss what is the American Dream and what cause-effect relationship does it have today. First of all, it is important to understand in full the meaning ...

Neoliberalism is a politico-economic theory that has been used widely in the study of social sciences. It supports massive economic policies such as privatization, free trade, deregulation, fiscal austerity and it advocates for governments to cut their spending so as to enhance and augment the role that the private sector plays in the economy. The lecture by Derrick Hamilton was meant to explore how this theory has contributed to a racial wealth gap and its effects on businesses and the economy in general. The ‘Neoliberalism and Racial Wealth Gap’ lecture was an eye opener to the massive flaws of ...

Introduction

The phrase “the rich get richer while the poor get poorer” has become a worldwide anthem at many political and economic forums. While these facts are actually true very few or practically no one goes forward to act in a manner seen to strike a balance if anything many individuals are individualistic and greedy. Elite economists from IMF recently released a study on the causes and consequences of rising income inequalities. It is believed as a result of income inequality there could arise a myriad of complex problems, most of which touch and greatly impact upon the economic growth ...

The 16th century exploits of Christopher Columbus and his men did not only bring about social, cultural and political clashes that created the United States, it also led to the process that resulted in the emergence of the state of Mexico. Mexico is an enigma of a country to the south of the United States border whose recent political, economic and social transformations have been overshadowed by its complex relations with the more prosperous United States. This country profile seeks to examine the history and current state of Mexico. It also explores and analyzes political culture, geography, demography, political ...

Introduction

The aim of any government and society is to promote life where people have fair chances of succeeding depending on their work and adherence to the law. Any society is primarily created to uphold peoples’ life, liberty, and to facilitate their pursuit of happiness. In America, social inequality is predominant and has led to perpetual social stratification and mobility, resulting in erosion of living standards of the people. This paper will discuss and analyze social stratification and mobility in the United States in relation to poverty, race, gender, and education and how they determine individuals’ belonging to a particular ...

Re: Payroll tax policy and Income inequality

Current situation Recommendations The United States economy is the largest economy in the world, making the country powerful and respectable. In such an economy, there should be policies that promote income equality among the people to reduce the poverty levels. The tax system of the United States will require a proper revision to incorporate equality among the different wage group categories. The recommended reforms look at ways of reducing income inequality through adjustments on the payroll tax policy.

Cuts on payroll tax and increasing the scope of the tax to encourage savings

Adjusting the payroll tax on low income employees will encourage a saving habit to the people of the US. It will ...

Government and markets

While presenting his speech, Eliot Spitzer showcases the role that the government can play in regulating markets. From the speech, Eliot asserted that the United States government missed a chance to ensure that the financial markets had a firmer foundation, and future financial meltdowns could be avoided. From the financial meltdown that occurred in 2008, the government should have embraced a rational policy in dealing with the financial problems. According to Eliot, the effort that was put in by the congress to ensure that there was a great improvement in how the market was regulated did not seem to ...

The distribution of income has always been a common theme, one which has caused big schisms in economic thought. The huge economic inequalities that exist between individuals are criticized by those who have more egalitarian views, and cherished by others who claim it is a needed condition for economic growth and advancement (Hawkins, 2004). Whatever effects economic inequality may imply, it is of essence to understand the causes and structure of this issue; what it is correlated with and how it is distributed among the citizens. In Turkey, the preoccupation with inflation and macroeconomic stability which dominated the last years of ...