Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
M,W,F, 9am
38 comments:
Luigi
said...
My idea of the wealth gap and the direction it is heading to, I believe that the circulation of money will be unbalanced and leaned towards one side: THE RICH. Those that are rich have more opportunity to double up their money. Thus, creating long chains of wealth for their next generation and so on. That means, if you are not part or was not part of that family - the rich group - then the possibilities of you gaining wealth are slim. As a result, that may cause a major collapse in our society.
What can we do about it? - Protest? - Send letters to the government? - Wait on Barack Obama? - Pray to God? - Force the rich to pay more taxes?
All of these options have been used, and still the gap is increasing. What I believe, we (the non-wealthy ones), need to do is to find ways to get at the level of the rich ones, and then do what the rich ones won't do: give others opportunity to elevate wealth. That way, the percentage of wealth can be divided and balanced. For example, if one gets rich because of a...lets say... inventing the i-pad. From the earnings ( a whole lot?), that one person then invests in other sectors and triple his/her income. He/she then opens mutual funds (what most do) for his children, and their children continues the process.
What does that say?
That says, we should do the same.
What a lot of people do not understand is that getting rich is not the hard part is becoming the wealthy. That is, getting rich and keeping it. If you want to make a difference, just find a way to become rich. There are multiple ways to get rich.
But then, one question remains. Once you get rich, will you try to continue increasing your income (doing like the rich ones now) or distribute some of that income to those that need it?
Wealth gap is a big issue in this country, the rich trying to get richer and in the process they take advantage of poor people by paying less for they work. The system keeps rich peple rich and poor people poor, we dont see that much help from the goverment to help poor people change their life. For example, rich people pay less taxes than poor people believe or not its true. Alot of big companys make donations and charity so they can avoid taxes, this means they dont do it because they care about others but thats what they say. Other problem here are banks. When a person goes to the bank and try to get a loan to start a bussines banks dont give this people the oportunity to grow, the oportunity to change their lifestyle. Goverment in the other hand gives money to the banks not to the people that really needed. So all this shows that the system is trying to keep poor people poor and rich peoplr rich. What can we do? Next time you elect a politician to represent you think about what changes that person will make . The best thing we the poor can do is get an education so we can get a better job
I believe the school education system keeps the poor ignorant. Many of the "poor" people are considered minorities and don't matter. In addition, its alway their fault for not questioning the goverment and thinking "What can wer do about it?" People in general don't take the time to inform themselves about whats going on in the world. many blame it on the fact that they work and have a family to care for. But being involved doesn't take much timenor energy. For example, the people who run south Florida's education system are Northerners; why? Well simply because they are educated and are up to date. If they ever feel they need to change sometime they are only a few miles away from the cities capital. Furthermore, these non-diverse group of people and non-diverse population is ruling, choosing, and voting, for a city in which they do not live nor do they know the conditions. 80% of northern Floridians have not visited miami yet they are the ones who vote and make decisions for us.
I believe that our current system is made to keep the poor,well poor and the richer rich. Though credit cards can help they do not always allow small businesses to expand if wished. Even though they are funded by the government to help those in need, they are greedy. And I do believe that rich people do and should pay more taxes they are constantly expensing and charity and donations. Furthermore, I believe that one day there will be no middle class. Middle class people continues to decrease as well, many people choose low paying jobs in fear that they'll be left with a huge un payable debt when sometimes the reality is they can pay it off but are so brought down by society that it makes them reconsiders and leaves the majority feeling helpless and gives up. Poor people are the 99% and should be educated to make well educated decisions and get involved we are so lucky to have the Freedom of Speech and Press and yet the majority is voiceless??
The wealth gap between younger and older Americans has stretched to the widest on record, worsened by a prolonged economic downturn that has wiped out job opportunities for young adults and saddled them with housing and college debt. While people typically accumulate assets as they age, this wealth gap is now more than double what it was in 2005 and nearly five times the 10-to-1 disparity a quarter-century ago, after adjusting for inflation. While the wealth gap has been widening gradually due to delayed marriage and increases in single parenting among young adults, the housing bust and recession have made it much worse. Older Americans are staying in jobs longer, while young adults now face the highest unemployment since World War II. As a result, the median income of older-age households since 1967 has grown at four times the rate of those headed by the under-35 age group. An emergency call is needed to stop this issue, let’s take action now and we will have a better tomorrow.
The wealth gap is a very big issue in this country, the rich are getting richer while the middle class and the poor are getting poorer. I do not think there is much we can do after hoping they would have some kind of mercy for the poor. Because the rich are those who also have powers to determine what they want to do, when they spend a dollar they have to be able to get double or more from that. I think this is in us human, not only in this country it is every where those who are rich want to be richer even though they do not need the money they just do that to show their power, I believe only God can make them change their minds otherwise they will not help others cause they only care about themselves their family and close friends who have the same fortunes with them or the same level of education. Though we can protest, I believe in protest but I still don't think they will do that much but it is better to do something than looking at them waiting.
I do care about the distribution of wealth of a nation. It is unacceptable to have a small group of people possess 50% of wealth of a nation and leave the rest of the population mostly with nothing. We name those who have the monopoly of the nation richer and those who struggle to put food on their tables poor. We have seen that over the years, the richer becomes richer and the poor becomes poor. What causes the big gap of wealth? Is it because the poor on his part does not make much effort or is it because the richer and the government do not give the poor a chance to come out from the situation? Let’s take a simple example here in Miami, our local government wanted to build a stadium for Marlin’s team. Each of those players, owners, and managers own millions of dollars. Instead of using their own money to build the stadium, they use the tax payer money, those who struggle for living. When our local government does not have enough money to operate, they impose taxes on us. Recently, hundreds of county employees have been laid off and those who still have jobs, 15% cut off from their pay check. Do you know that just the bonuses of few Mayors, managers, and councilman can keep hundred county employees at work? They are too greedy. They are not going to let their bonuses help others. I do believe the situation of the poor people can change if the government and those who own 50% of wealth of this country change their perceptions. Let say that the riches consciously accept for the government to impose more taxes on them, so the government can have enough money to operate without imposing too much taxes on the poor. Let’s take an example, if the government and the riches consciously accept to pay their poor employees, those who work very hard and contribute to the growth of their companies, a salary that at least can compare to the profits they make, I guarantee you this only can change the situation of the poor.
I believe that if your poor and not apart of the “Rich family” then there are no chances of getting wealth. There have been many arguments about this situation. We have tried to make a change but no matter what the gap still have been increasing. The rich are still trying to become rich and finding jobs for poor people has become stressful. However, if you have a job you’re being paid less. So basically the poor will be poor, no matter how hard we try. I think writing letters, protesting etc are just a waste of time because our voice wont be heard. The wealth gap between old and young is a major issue. Its something we can’t avoid. We as younger people just have to make wiser financial decision, so when the economy gets better we can be able to live comfortable lifestyle.
There is only one true way that the wealth gap can decrease, and more Americans can be leveled in their standard of living. Its education, and the availability of opportunities in the american society. When talking education, many people assume that being educated means that you have to take out loans, but that is where the availability of opportunities comes in. Not allowing companies and large corporations to outsource jobs without being punished. Even the ones that do keep their operations within the US are hindering growth by hiring illegal immigrants. Our consumer culture has forced our country into one that is only allowed to export services efficiently ( and were not even doing that right). We import things that can be made in america. By creating more jobs in the US, you have a higher chance of a college student being able to get a job and not take out student loans which will further limit their ability to make more money in the future. Now, secondary education is nice, but if we don't raise the bar for our primary education institutions there is no way anything will be improved and maintained. The reason that there is this widening gap is that there is no way to actually climb up the ladder. We are slowly chopping off the ladder steps from the middle and out-sourcing them. By reversing this, we will not only close the gap, we will give america a higher probability of maintaining our top spot. but most importantly we will move up in the things that matter.
This subject, as with nearly all of the subjects discussed in class, is a tricky one. No one answer will satisfy anyone, and there will always be inflamed tempers and contentious egos. Now, the first option that comes to mind when discussing a decrease in the riches of the wealthy is an additional tax bracket. By adding a new income tax bracket for those earning above, say, 200,000 dollars a year, many of the problems of the nation would be alleviated. Well, perhaps not alleviated, but it’s a good start. However, this is only a first step, since it would burn the rich, but do nothing to help the poor. What the truly poor need are jobs. Joblessness is quite the epidemic that has spread through the states, and every other bill in Congress discusses, at some level or another, how we must create jobs. Well, under Eisenhower, the truly wealthy (and I mean the really, really rich people) paid an income tax of 90%. Yes, nine zero percent. All that money went into the building of roads, of superhighways and skyscrapers, and in consequence, all that money created jobs. And not just jobs that would “just get people by,” but jobs that came with a decent pay, health benefits, and a social security plan for when the worker retired. If some of the truly high-income makers of this country were willing to give up some more of their money, well-paying jobs could be created to help those who truly needed it out of debt. Now, this article in the Huffington Post discusses how many of the people in debt were there because of student loans. I hate to say it so blatantly, but we have taken education too far in this country. It’s better to have missed on the over than on the under, but education is too stressed. Every schmuck needs a Masters degree before he/she can start working, and what winds up happening is a lot of students leave college with a lot of useless knowledge, heaping student loans to pay off, and no job. In Europe, vocational schools are much more prevalent, and I agree with this type of education. Not every person is meant to hold a law degree or to become a brain surgeon. Whether we like to admit it or not, we need the blue collar workers that fix our cars and air-conditioning systems and who do our dry-cleaning. Now, if our government were to create a bit of push for this kind of work, instead of always insisting on every student setting their sights on biochemistry, many more people would be out of school without debts to pay off, and can start life at the zero mark, not already at six-feet-under.
One of the biggest issues in the US is the wealth gap, and in my opinion we can’t do much about it because we depend on rich people who by the way keep getting richer day by day and have no pity for the poor people. And some rich people make donations but they don’t do it out of kindness, they simply do it to lower their taxes or to look good in front of others. In addition to that, I think is unfair that someone who has a lower income has to pay more taxes than the one who have a higher income, it should be the opposite because poor people need money to cover their needs. And if rich people pay more taxes, the country could have a better economy and there would be more money available to really help the poor people.
We have to be realistic with the fact that the gap between rich and poor may never come to an end, but certainly what this movement is doing is to help to preserve is the soon to be extinct middle class. The United States is going through a deep economic crisis that is being complicated by a generalized global economic crisis and under these circumstances middle class and low class tend to have fewer opportunities while the rich class most likely will remain untouched. Without the real interest of the government on this issue the reactivation of the national economy is not possible; jobs are needed as well as the opening of credit lines for small business in order to reactivate the cycle of businesses and employment. The constant bleeding of funds that could have been injected to the economy is obvious to the point of isolating an already unhappy working class to minimal 1%.
The wealth gap is only going to get bigger. The rich will always get richer and the others will always struggle. This is nothing new. I feel that our problem is ourselves, the people, and it always will be. We have the power to do whatever we want yet its like if no one wants to do anything about it and those that do aren't doing it effectively yet. The only times the government listens to us is when we fight them to the bottom. Then again, its like everyone's hypnotized. People are seeing what's going on in our country, they see that world economy is falling apart, and all we can do is sit here and watch it with our popcorn in hand.
My idea on the issue is we are placing the blame on the wrong people. if we continue to place the blame on the government we will not get anywhere. Let’s be honest here, is it really fair to pick on the rich? It’s not their fault that they worked hard to get where there are or had a wealthy family member. Not to be pessimistic but The rich will continue to get richer while the poor get poorer. It's unfortunate to say but it's the truth. We have grown to become a lazy society, we sit around and complain and hope change will come, and in reality the only way change will come is if we get up and make it happen. Yes,protesting is a start but the act of protesting has been around for a long time and what has it really solved? The article in the Huffington Post discusses how many of the people in debt were there because of student loans and credit cards, half of which were younger than 35. To be honest, this is not anything that surprises me. We are not educated which leads to a job that does not pay well.The controversy that wealth is only for a particular sex or race is ridiculous. Anyone in the world has the ability to get up and get a good education, not be a victim to the student loans, and obtain a good job,one in which, will make them wealthy. Black or white. Young or old. It's possible.
The problem with the middle and low families is to try and make everybody stay and school and try not to reach the poverty level. If more of our kids are in school then they could be more successful in life. I feel like everybody should have some type of education. The reason why the rich increase in their yearly salary is simple because they know how to invest their money. I think that how this country always was the wealth continues to go up just for investing. I think the government should help the poor the most meaning help families have job, shelter, and kids to be able to attend school. It also wouldn’t be bad to tax the wealth a little bit more then lower groups. It would help out a lot they would live the same wealthy life. A change in poverty rates would defiantly change the rates of the data on the wealth gap grows chart.
While my knowledge in the field of politics is lacking I can relate to the post. I’m both a student and poor. It’s extremely scary and sad that while my generation is going into their adulthood we have to deal with such a crisis. I never imagine when I was younger that growing up would turn out to be such a nightmare. As stated on the post finding a job is near impossible not to mention having to carry being young and a student on your shoulders. The education is also full of lies we are told to aim high but at what price? Being full of debt before even finishing the degree of choice seems to be the price. If people started to focus more on creating new business and ideas followed by what my fellow student Andrew Davis said, I believe we might be able to escape this depression and embark on a healthier future.
well money is the main factor of the whole world. The rich always going to be rich and the poor always going to poor. Also the middle class, will be always be stable. Society in this world is crazy about Job, Money, their own life. The wealth gap happen every way in this world. For example basketball season support to started. Its a lockout because the owner want their money back from the players. Even though the players are not in the middle class or poor. The rich just want more money in their banks. The banks even not safe no more, taking money off of person account and saving. What can we do about this? Its alot of things we can do, such as fight for our right by protested. Don't buy no any kind of product in the mall. I know its numbers of people can make a different. As the same time you need a person that have alot of power to "TRY" to make a change. Only if the rich can given some money to the society and care more, the world can be a better place.
well money is the main factor of the whole world. The rich always going to be rich and the poor always going to poor. Also the middle class, will be always be stable. Society in this world is crazy about Job, Money, their own life. The wealth gap happen every way in this world. For example basketball season support to started. Its a lockout because the owner want their money back from the players. Even though the players are not in the middle class or poor. The rich just want more money in their banks. The banks even not safe no more, taking money off of person account and saving. What can we do about this? Its alot of things we can do, such as fight for our right by protested. Don't buy no any kind of product in the mall. I know its numbers of people can make a different. As the same time you need a person that have alot of power to "TRY" to make a change. Only if the rich can given some money to the society and care more, the world can be a better place.
well money is the main factor of the whole world. The rich always going to be rich and the poor always going to poor. Also the middle class, will be always be stable. Society in this world is crazy about Job, Money, their own life. The wealth gap happen every way in this world. For example basketball season support to started. Its a lockout because the owner want their money back from the players. Even though the players are not in the middle class or poor. The rich just want more money in their banks. The banks even not safe no more, taking money off of person account and saving. What can we do about this? Its alot of things we can do, such as fight for our right by protested. Don't buy no any kind of product in the mall. I know its numbers of people can make a different. As the same time you need a person that have alot of power to "TRY" to make a change. Only if the rich can given some money to the society and care more, the world can be a better place.
well money is the main factor of the whole world. The rich always going to be rich and the poor always going to poor. Also the middle class, will be always be stable. Society in this world is crazy about Job, Money, their own life. The wealth gap happen every way in this world. For example basketball season support to started. Its a lockout because the owner want their money back from the players. Even though the players are not in the middle class or poor. The rich just want more money in their banks. The banks even not safe no more, taking money off of person account and saving. What can we do about this? Its alot of things we can do, such as fight for our right by protested. Don't buy no any kind of product in the mall. I know its numbers of people can make a different. As the same time you need a person that have alot of power to "TRY" to make a change. Only if the rich can given some money to the society and care more, the world can be a better place.
In my opinion "the poor" are poor because they are uneducated about the secrets of making money and how to keep it. I also believe that the majority of people, who are poor, are poor because they did little to get a real career and so forth. The "rich" know what to do with their money and how to prolong their rising incomes. It is all about working hard in life to get to the point where you can become wealthy. That is why many people who have once been poor are now rich. It is about doing the right things in life and taking no short cuts. If you feel as if you are uneducated on how to keep your money, it is very simple to read and educate yourself. Yes, I do believe that our school system and society does not teach us those secrets because it is our responsibility to learn them for ourselves. They cannot share it with everyone because everyone cannot be rich. If everyone was then there would not be a lower or higher class. The wealth gap is increasing because of inflation and the loss of job opportunities but those who want to swim against the current are able to do so because the resources are still there. It is just very hard to do so in order to get to the point of becoming wealthy. Most people give up and get lazy. Those who are wealthy worked hard to get to that point and those who have inherited great wealth have inherited wealth from someone who has also worked hard to get there as well. It is all what you make of yourself.
Why do some nations become rich while others remain poor? Traditional mainstream economic growth theory has done little to answer this question—during most of the twentieth century the theory focused on models that assumed growth was a simple function of labor, capital, and technology. Economic inequality is growing in the world’s richest countries, and the gap between rich and poor has widened over the last 20 years in nearly all the countries studied, even as trade and technological advances have spurred rapid growth in their economies. According to the economist Anthony Atkinson, the United States has the highest inequality and poverty rates after Mexico and Turkey, and the gap has increased rapidly since 2000. France, meanwhile, has seen inequalities fall in the past 20 years as poorer workers are better paid. Rising inequality threatens social mobility — children doing better than their parents, the poor improving their lot through hard work — which is lower in countries like the U.S., Great Britain and Italy, where inequality is high, than countries with less inequality such as Denmark, Sweden and Australia, the report said. In a 20-year study, economist found inequality had increased in 27 of its 30 members as top earners’ incomes soared while others’ stagnated. Wealthy households are not only widening the gap with the poor, but in countries such as the U.S., Canada and Germany they are also leaving middle-income earners further behind, with potentially ominous consequences if the global financial crisis sparks a long recession. -Tania Joseph
I recently read something extremely interesting in the November 14, 2011 issue of Time Magazine. “As Alexis da Tocqueville argued more than 150 years ago, it’s this [American] dream that enables Americans to tolerate much social inequality.”
Of course, I have often wondered what causes my fellow Americans to care so little for those who are less fortunate than them. We have grown up believing in this “American Dream” and that if we work hard enough we will “make it.” So this perpetuates the attitude that anyone who has not achieved this “American Dream” (classified as being a part of the middle class, where a family of four would have an annual income 300% above the poverty line) obviously have not worked hard. They must be lazy it is their fault. But how can one truly earn a “middle class” income when there are so few middle class careers? Or when so many people are being weighed down by medical bills they could not possibly pay back within a reasonable amount of time. Our country has no empathy for each other.
How do we teach empathy to each other? How do we fix this American Dream concept? I believe the only way to regain the middle class is through education. There are no longer middle class factory jobs you can count on without a degree.
As the rich get richer, the poor gets more poor. I alwayd heard that saying but now to actually read it and undertand it to my own knowledge and belief, I think that it is true. The rich know ways to incest their money, either that, or they have someone do it fo them. For example, the company Apple. They are known one of the biggest and most successful companies in the world. Why? Because they know exactly what to do with their money. Put money on stocks and bonds and it comes back double for the rich. Now the poor or the low working class on the other hand, you still have people out there who's losing money daily becasue they have the money, but they just dont know where to put there money at. They don't have financial advisors like the rich do. I know some people who rather waste their money on shoes, clothes, and all other unnecessary things. Instead or just putting their money into something small and let it build like that (take a chance if you will), then maybe they can become apart of the statistic of rich or wealthy people. No offense to no one who's working hard for their money. I'm just saying, you got it, find something productive to do with it.
The wealth gap is a big issue in this country, the rich are getting richer while the middle class and the poor are getting poorer. I think is unfair that someone who has a lower income has to pay more taxes than the one who have a higher income, it should be the opposite because poor people need money to cover their needs. Wealthy households are not only widening the gap with the poor, but in countries such as the U.S., Canada and Germany they are also leaving middle-income earners further behind, with potentially ominous consequences if the global financial crisis sparks a long recession. Yves dessin
The real problem of this is the fact that the middle class is disappearing quickly and there seems to be no solution. I believe that there will always be an unbalance between wealth classes but the major difference is the size of the middle class. A large middle class stimulates everything these are the people who usually bump and grind daily to make a decent living and spend daily on needs. There has to be a fair way to balance the economy. I don’t think it does anyone justice for us to penalize the rich for having earned a luxurious life style. I believe in a equal system. We need to find a way to use the money of the rich to create more jobs. If all we plan is too tax them unjustly then they will just leave the country and take the wealth leaving us in a deeper hole. The rich may pay less taxes but I believe that 50% of Americans don’t even pay taxes so how is that fair in anyway. I don’t think people should get punished for their family success, but yet I understand the dire situation we are in. We must find a way to get the rich to make more jobs and they’ll get profit as well as help grow the middle class. Xabier Martinez-Cid
The wealth gap is one of the biggest issues that this country face, the rich keep making money and penalized for it as much as we would want them, the poor keep losing money or remain the same, and there is no middle class anymore. I think it’s unacceptable that 1 percent of the country controls most of the income this country receives. You have to also understand that we cannot do much because the rich elected their own officials so that they can keep making money and not lose much at all. The rich don’t care about the poor, and the only reason that they donate money is so that they don’t get tax. We must do something before it’s too late, there will come a time when we must say enough and rise against the riches and Wall Street and demand that the wealth gap becomes more fair to others so that we may regain our middle class which has been lost. In conclusion I believe that one day we will have an even take in the income of the country and I also believe that it will make this country better and stronger and also more secure and reliable not just for us but the rest of the world.
I have to say I agree with those who believe many of us work too hard to reach "The American Dream" when in reality it is becoming much harder for us to make it. There's a big gap betwwen working class and rich people. It would be unrealistic for me to say that we all should own the same amount of wealth, in fact that is impossible. I do not mind people having lots of money, but only those who work hard for it. Many wealthy families have so much money because it has passed from previous generations. The way for us to try to fix this is to become part of it, get involve in your community and get more involved with politics and that way a better future for this country will lay in your hands.
We have to realize that the gap between the rich and poor is never going to come to an end. From my perspective, first that will not be possible because while the poor is trying to escape from reality that is living, the rich is getting “richer, wealthier” and the poor is either getting poorer or climbing little by little to reach a low –medium class. So with today’s economy we are seeing how the United States of America which is among the more affluent and wealthy nation’s shows that most of the wealth has been concentrated with a very small percentage of people. Which mean that medium class is disappearing and that is very problematic because the poor is never going to have that chance to succeed .
It is certain that the issue of a wealth gap has become more prevalent over the past years. The gap is continually stretching, and the rage has become more evident through protest movements such as “Occupying Miami”. The unemployment rate has peaked, more people have become unable to pay their debts in a manageable amount of time, and numerous college students are unable to find jobs to pay loans after investing years of education. Despite the political outrage that could be produced, I agree with many of my classmates that one powerful solution would be to increase taxes to the rich, so that it could create more jobs and social opportunities to the poor, thus helping to establish a middle class, and a better standard of living. On the other hand, the Employment Act of 1946 holds the federal government and more specifically the President of the United States responsible of creating jobs to alleviate economic downturns such as the one we are currently experiencing. However, the jobs that could be created might not be the overall solution to the gap we are trying to emend.
the wealth gap is the reality of society always for the rich people it is easy to become richer, more opportunities to make more money and better jobs; for the poor is harder everything get a job, high income etc. The income disparity between the rich and poor is a function of many factors. However, the largest responsibility for the gap can be laid at the feet of politicians. Their never ending desire to be re-elected always leads them to create policies that favor one party over another......tax policies being the most often used for that purpose. I believe a reduction in government bureaucrotization (with a corresponding reduction in rules and regulations) would allow the free market to once again function. When the size of the overall economic pie increases, everyone will benefit. also is harder that old people and young people get a good job, we need to try to maintain stable the middle class so thus people don't became part of the poverty.
I do care about the wealth gap issue of our nation. The future of our country for upcoming generation is at risk because after years of giving tax breaks to the rich believing something would trickle-down on the rest of us, we now have a very clear picture of the trickle-down theory and it isn’t pretty. Our cutting-edge tax structure that created a strong middle class after the great depression was tossed aside when too many of us believed the corporate spin to give our country's wealth to the top 1%. This country's income inequality is real and has gotten so extreme here that the US now ranks 93rd in the world in "income equality." China's ahead of us. So is India. So is Iran. We are shrinking the middle class and without the middle class we will no longer be a great nation. The cost of goods is going up yet the wages are staying the same. The dollar is dropping and the stocks are showing the pinch. The unemployment rate is rising.
Unfortunately for the middle class they now are facing two paths, rich or poor. The middle class is disappearing and this is horrible for society in the sense that blue collar jobs will no longer be available. So who is to suffer? Everyone. The rich may be getting richer but they are not to be blamed by their financial success, the poor may be getting poorer but that doesn't mean they should just give up and beat themselves up about it. I was always taught growing up, if I want something- I must work hard to get it. Unfortunately for some people, it isn't that easy. A possible solution can be that instead of them protesting and finding different ways to change the government for their own good, they should just be working harder to get what they want without whining about it because not everyone's words are heard so loudly. A movement like occupymiami, has done a lot with the help of many but despite the fact that this movement is going out throughout the whole country it is still going on because everything takes time. So go on and protest for something smaller than occupymiami or keep on working on striving to do better? I'd make the best out of it with optimism to get out of my current situation and keep working hard for what I want.
The wealth gap is a big issue in this country and the rest of the world, the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. I believe this is a very unfair situation because the low-income people do not have the opportunities to get out of poverty. Who’s fault is it? Well, if you grew up in a low-income or poor family chances are is that you are going to have a very low education level. This means that you will only have up to your high school diploma or some college. So this will not get you very good job opportunities. In addition, is getting harder and harder to find a job and the job field is becoming more competitive every day, so this is making harder and harder for poor people to get a better life and opportunities for their families.
The wealth gap is a big issue in this country and the rest of the world, the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. I believe this is a very unfair situation because the low-income people do not have the opportunities to get out of poverty. Who’s fault is it? Well, if you grew up in a low-income or poor family chances are is that you are going to have a very low education level. This means that you will only have up to your high school diploma or some college. So this will not get you very good job opportunities. In addition, is getting harder and harder to find a job and the job field is becoming more competitive every day, so this is making harder and harder for poor people to get a better life and opportunities for their families. Angie Paez
I don't think my other post went through so I wil rewrite it.
The article describes a common perception on what the status quo is. Whites have more than blacks. Its sounds like a racial slur yet the statistics prove it. When one has wealth, it usually transcends time so that it can be kept and upkept. Poverty unfortunately, functions in a similar way. Those who can't provide fo themselves have less to provide for the next generation. Affluence is pretty much maintained by those families who had it in the first place namely in the hands of white. If there is to be some change in balance the rich will have to give to the poor since it does not work the other way around. However, the decision is unfair seeing as the money has been worked to be attained. Only in a society where everyone lives on equal footing will there be some type of balance. However such utopian ideals are the foundation for communism which doesn't see to correct the issue either. The money has to change hands willingly in order for the transition to go over smoothly otherwise the rich will become richer leaving poverty to haunt everyone else.
My opinion on the wealth gap is that while some may argue that it is necessary for their to be a high, middle, and low class structured system, the gaps have become so obscenely distant as to become irrevocably unequal. Isolating the phenomena to the United States, the middle class which is the backbone and lifeblood of our economy, has shrunk exponentially, while poverty has run rampant among the lower class. The discrepancy in income between households is rapidly reaching an unsustainable level, with less and less household able to bear the brunt of federal taxes that the top income earners, and te least, are not as susceptible to. The true victims of the wealth gap aren't those who were already struck by poverty, but those considered to be middle class who have had to suffer their income, taken in taxes, to bail out banks and big companies, while the same treatment is not extended to them.
38 comments:
My idea of the wealth gap and the direction it is heading to, I believe that the circulation of money will be unbalanced and leaned towards one side: THE RICH. Those that are rich have more opportunity to double up their money. Thus, creating long chains of wealth for their next generation and so on. That means, if you are not part or was not part of that family - the rich group - then the possibilities of you gaining wealth are slim. As a result, that may cause a major collapse in our society.
What can we do about it?
- Protest?
- Send letters to the government?
- Wait on Barack Obama?
- Pray to God?
- Force the rich to pay more taxes?
All of these options have been used, and still the gap is increasing. What I believe, we (the non-wealthy ones), need to do is to find ways to get at the level of the rich ones, and then do what the rich ones won't do: give others opportunity to elevate wealth. That way, the percentage of wealth can be divided and balanced. For example, if one gets rich because of a...lets say... inventing the i-pad. From the earnings ( a whole lot?), that one person then invests in other sectors and triple his/her income. He/she then opens mutual funds (what most do) for his children, and their children continues the process.
What does that say?
That says, we should do the same.
What a lot of people do not understand is that getting rich is not the hard part is becoming the wealthy. That is, getting rich and keeping it. If you want to make a difference, just find a way to become rich. There are multiple ways to get rich.
But then, one question remains.
Once you get rich, will you try to continue increasing your income (doing like the rich ones now) or distribute some of that income to those that need it?
Wealth gap is a big issue in this country, the rich trying to get richer and in the process they take advantage of poor people by paying less for they work. The system keeps rich peple rich and poor people poor, we dont see that much help from the goverment to help poor people change their life. For example, rich people pay less taxes than poor people believe or not its true. Alot of big companys make donations and charity so they can avoid taxes, this means they dont do it because they care about others but thats what they say. Other problem here are banks. When a person goes to the bank and try to get a loan to start a bussines banks dont give this people the oportunity to grow, the oportunity to change their lifestyle. Goverment in the other hand gives money to the banks not to the people that really needed. So all this shows that the system is trying to keep poor people poor and rich peoplr rich. What can we do? Next time you elect a politician to represent you think about what changes that person will make . The best thing we the poor can do is get an education so we can get a better job
ELIZABETH NEREY
I believe the school education system keeps the poor ignorant. Many of the "poor" people are considered minorities and don't matter. In addition, its alway their fault for not questioning the goverment and thinking "What can wer do about it?" People in general don't take the time to inform themselves about whats going on in the world. many blame it on the fact that they work and have a family to care for. But being involved doesn't take much timenor energy. For example, the people who run south Florida's education system are Northerners; why? Well simply because they are educated and are up to date. If they ever feel they need to change sometime they are only a few miles away from the cities capital. Furthermore, these non-diverse group of people and non-diverse population is ruling, choosing, and voting, for a city in which they do not live nor do they know the conditions. 80% of northern Floridians have not visited miami yet they are the ones who vote and make decisions for us.
I believe that our current system is made to keep the poor,well poor and the richer rich. Though credit cards can help they do not always allow small businesses to expand if wished. Even though they are funded by the government to help those in need, they are greedy. And I do believe that rich people do and should pay more taxes they are constantly expensing and charity and donations. Furthermore, I believe that one day there will be no middle class. Middle class people continues to decrease as well, many people choose low paying jobs in fear that they'll be left with a huge un payable debt when sometimes the reality is they can pay it off but are so brought down by society that it makes them reconsiders and leaves the majority feeling helpless and gives up. Poor people are the 99% and should be educated to make well educated decisions and get involved we are so lucky to have the Freedom of Speech and Press and yet the majority is voiceless??
The wealth gap between younger and older Americans has stretched to the widest on record, worsened by a prolonged economic downturn that has wiped out job opportunities for young adults and saddled them with housing and college debt. While people typically accumulate assets as they age, this wealth gap is now more than double what it was in 2005 and nearly five times the 10-to-1 disparity a quarter-century ago, after adjusting for inflation. While the wealth gap has been widening gradually due to delayed marriage and increases in single parenting among young adults, the housing bust and recession have made it much worse. Older Americans are staying in jobs longer, while young adults now face the highest unemployment since World War II. As a result, the median income of older-age households since 1967 has grown at four times the rate of those headed by the under-35 age group. An emergency call is needed to stop this issue, let’s take action now and we will have a better tomorrow.
The wealth gap is a very big issue in this country, the rich are getting richer while the middle class and the poor are getting poorer. I do not think there is much we can do after hoping they would have some kind of mercy for the poor. Because the rich are those who also have powers to determine what they want to do, when they spend a dollar they have to be able to get double or more from that. I think this is in us human, not only in this country it is every where those who are rich want to be richer even though they do not need the money they just do that to show their power, I believe only God can make them change their minds otherwise they will not help others cause they only care about themselves their family and close friends who have the same fortunes with them or the same level of education. Though we can protest, I believe in protest but I still don't think they will do that much but it is better to do something than looking at them waiting.
Lukagea Samedi
I do care about the distribution of wealth of a nation. It is unacceptable to have a small group of people possess 50% of wealth of a nation and leave the rest of the population mostly with nothing. We name those who have the monopoly of the nation richer and those who struggle to put food on their tables poor. We have seen that over the years, the richer becomes richer and the poor becomes poor. What causes the big gap of wealth? Is it because the poor on his part does not make much effort or is it because the richer and the government do not give the poor a chance to come out from the situation? Let’s take a simple example here in Miami, our local government wanted to build a stadium for Marlin’s team. Each of those players, owners, and managers own millions of dollars. Instead of using their own money to build the stadium, they use the tax payer money, those who struggle for living. When our local government does not have enough money to operate, they impose taxes on us. Recently, hundreds of county employees have been laid off and those who still have jobs, 15% cut off from their pay check. Do you know that just the bonuses of few Mayors, managers, and councilman can keep hundred county employees at work? They are too greedy. They are not going to let their bonuses help others. I do believe the situation of the poor people can change if the government and those who own 50% of wealth of this country change their perceptions. Let say that the riches consciously accept for the government to impose more taxes on them, so the government can have enough money to operate without imposing too much taxes on the poor. Let’s take an example, if the government and the riches consciously accept to pay their poor employees, those who work very hard and contribute to the growth of their companies, a salary that at least can compare to the profits they make, I guarantee you this only can change the situation of the poor.
I believe that if your poor and not apart of the “Rich family” then there are no chances of getting wealth. There have been many arguments about this situation. We have tried to make a change but no matter what the gap still have been increasing. The rich are still trying to become rich and finding jobs for poor people has become stressful. However, if you have a job you’re being paid less. So basically the poor will be poor, no matter how hard we try. I think writing letters, protesting etc are just a waste of time because our voice wont be heard. The wealth gap between old and young is a major issue. Its something we can’t avoid. We as younger people just have to make wiser financial decision, so when the economy gets better we can be able to live comfortable lifestyle.
There is only one true way that the wealth gap can decrease, and more Americans can be leveled in their standard of living. Its education, and the availability of opportunities in the american society. When talking education, many people assume that being educated means that you have to take out loans, but that is where the availability of opportunities comes in. Not allowing companies and large corporations to outsource jobs without being punished. Even the ones that do keep their operations within the US are hindering growth by hiring illegal immigrants. Our consumer culture has forced our country into one that is only allowed to export services efficiently ( and were not even doing that right). We import things that can be made in america. By creating more jobs in the US, you have a higher chance of a college student being able to get a job and not take out student loans which will further limit their ability to make more money in the future. Now, secondary education is nice, but if we don't raise the bar for our primary education institutions there is no way anything will be improved and maintained. The reason that there is this widening gap is that there is no way to actually climb up the ladder. We are slowly chopping off the ladder steps from the middle and out-sourcing them. By reversing this, we will not only close the gap, we will give america a higher probability of maintaining our top spot. but most importantly we will move up in the things that matter.
Angelica Louis-Jeune
This subject, as with nearly all of the subjects discussed in class, is a tricky one. No one answer will satisfy anyone, and there will always be inflamed tempers and contentious egos. Now, the first option that comes to mind when discussing a decrease in the riches of the wealthy is an additional tax bracket. By adding a new income tax bracket for those earning above, say, 200,000 dollars a year, many of the problems of the nation would be alleviated. Well, perhaps not alleviated, but it’s a good start. However, this is only a first step, since it would burn the rich, but do nothing to help the poor. What the truly poor need are jobs. Joblessness is quite the epidemic that has spread through the states, and every other bill in Congress discusses, at some level or another, how we must create jobs. Well, under Eisenhower, the truly wealthy (and I mean the really, really rich people) paid an income tax of 90%. Yes, nine zero percent. All that money went into the building of roads, of superhighways and skyscrapers, and in consequence, all that money created jobs. And not just jobs that would “just get people by,” but jobs that came with a decent pay, health benefits, and a social security plan for when the worker retired. If some of the truly high-income makers of this country were willing to give up some more of their money, well-paying jobs could be created to help those who truly needed it out of debt.
Now, this article in the Huffington Post discusses how many of the people in debt were there because of student loans. I hate to say it so blatantly, but we have taken education too far in this country. It’s better to have missed on the over than on the under, but education is too stressed. Every schmuck needs a Masters degree before he/she can start working, and what winds up happening is a lot of students leave college with a lot of useless knowledge, heaping student loans to pay off, and no job. In Europe, vocational schools are much more prevalent, and I agree with this type of education. Not every person is meant to hold a law degree or to become a brain surgeon. Whether we like to admit it or not, we need the blue collar workers that fix our cars and air-conditioning systems and who do our dry-cleaning. Now, if our government were to create a bit of push for this kind of work, instead of always insisting on every student setting their sights on biochemistry, many more people would be out of school without debts to pay off, and can start life at the zero mark, not already at six-feet-under.
One of the biggest issues in the US is the wealth gap, and in my opinion we can’t do much about it because we depend on rich people who by the way keep getting richer day by day and have no pity for the poor people. And some rich people make donations but they don’t do it out of kindness, they simply do it to lower their taxes or to look good in front of others.
In addition to that, I think is unfair that someone who has a lower income has to pay more taxes than the one who have a higher income, it should be the opposite because poor people need money to cover their needs. And if rich people pay more taxes, the country could have a better economy and there would be more money available to really help the poor people.
We have to be realistic with the fact that the gap between rich and poor may never come to an end, but certainly what this movement is doing is to help to preserve is the soon to be extinct middle class. The United States is going through a deep economic crisis that is being complicated by a generalized global economic crisis and under these circumstances middle class and low class tend to have fewer opportunities while the rich class most likely will remain untouched. Without the real interest of the government on this issue the reactivation of the national economy is not possible; jobs are needed as well as the opening of credit lines for small business in order to reactivate the cycle of businesses and employment. The constant bleeding of funds that could have been injected to the economy is obvious to the point of isolating an already unhappy working class to minimal 1%.
The wealth gap is only going to get bigger. The rich will always get richer and the others will always struggle. This is nothing new. I feel that our problem is ourselves, the people, and it always will be. We have the power to do whatever we want yet its like if no one wants to do anything about it and those that do aren't doing it effectively yet. The only times the government listens to us is when we fight them to the bottom. Then again, its like everyone's hypnotized. People are seeing what's going on in our country, they see that world economy is falling apart, and all we can do is sit here and watch it with our popcorn in hand.
-Roberto Siriani
My idea on the issue is we are placing the blame on the wrong people. if we continue to place the blame on the government we will not get anywhere. Let’s be honest here, is it really fair to pick on the rich? It’s not their fault that they worked hard to get where there are or had a wealthy family member. Not to be pessimistic but The rich will continue to get richer while the poor get poorer. It's unfortunate to say but it's the truth. We have grown to become a lazy society, we sit around and complain and hope change will come, and in reality the only way change will come is if we get up and make it happen. Yes,protesting is a start but the act of protesting has been around for a long time and what has it really solved? The article in the Huffington Post discusses how many of the people in debt were there because of student loans and credit cards, half of which were younger than 35. To be honest, this is not anything that surprises me. We are not educated which leads to a job that does not pay well.The controversy that wealth is only for a particular sex or race is ridiculous. Anyone in the world has the ability to get up and get a good education, not be a victim to the student loans, and obtain a good job,one in which, will make them wealthy. Black or white. Young or old. It's possible.
The problem with the middle and low families is to try and make everybody stay and school and try not to reach the poverty level. If more of our kids are in school then they could be more successful in life. I feel like everybody should have some type of education. The reason why the rich increase in their yearly salary is simple because they know how to invest their money. I think that how this country always was the wealth continues to go up just for investing. I think the government should help the poor the most meaning help families have job, shelter, and kids to be able to attend school. It also wouldn’t be bad to tax the wealth a little bit more then lower groups. It would help out a lot they would live the same wealthy life. A change in poverty rates would defiantly change the rates of the data on the wealth gap grows chart.
While my knowledge in the field of politics is lacking I can relate to the post. I’m both a student and poor. It’s extremely scary and sad that while my generation is going into their adulthood we have to deal with such a crisis. I never imagine when I was younger that growing up would turn out to be such a nightmare. As stated on the post finding a job is near impossible not to mention having to carry being young and a student on your shoulders. The education is also full of lies we are told to aim high but at what price? Being full of debt before even finishing the degree of choice seems to be the price. If people started to focus more on creating new business and ideas followed by what my fellow student Andrew Davis said, I believe we might be able to escape this depression and embark on a healthier future.
well money is the main factor of the whole world. The rich always going to be rich and the poor always going to poor. Also the middle class, will be always be stable. Society in this world is crazy about Job, Money, their own life. The wealth gap happen every way in this world. For example basketball season support to started. Its a lockout because the owner want their money back from the players. Even though the players are not in the middle class or poor. The rich just want more money in their banks. The banks even not safe no more, taking money off of person account and saving. What can we do about this? Its alot of things we can do, such as fight for our right by protested. Don't buy no any kind of product in the mall. I know its numbers of people can make a different. As the same time you need a person that have alot of power to "TRY" to make a change. Only if the rich can given some money to the society and care more, the world can be a better place.
well money is the main factor of the whole world. The rich always going to be rich and the poor always going to poor. Also the middle class, will be always be stable. Society in this world is crazy about Job, Money, their own life. The wealth gap happen every way in this world. For example basketball season support to started. Its a lockout because the owner want their money back from the players. Even though the players are not in the middle class or poor. The rich just want more money in their banks. The banks even not safe no more, taking money off of person account and saving. What can we do about this? Its alot of things we can do, such as fight for our right by protested. Don't buy no any kind of product in the mall. I know its numbers of people can make a different. As the same time you need a person that have alot of power to "TRY" to make a change. Only if the rich can given some money to the society and care more, the world can be a better place.
well money is the main factor of the whole world. The rich always going to be rich and the poor always going to poor. Also the middle class, will be always be stable. Society in this world is crazy about Job, Money, their own life. The wealth gap happen every way in this world. For example basketball season support to started. Its a lockout because the owner want their money back from the players. Even though the players are not in the middle class or poor. The rich just want more money in their banks. The banks even not safe no more, taking money off of person account and saving. What can we do about this? Its alot of things we can do, such as fight for our right by protested. Don't buy no any kind of product in the mall. I know its numbers of people can make a different. As the same time you need a person that have alot of power to "TRY" to make a change. Only if the rich can given some money to the society and care more, the world can be a better place.
well money is the main factor of the whole world. The rich always going to be rich and the poor always going to poor. Also the middle class, will be always be stable. Society in this world is crazy about Job, Money, their own life. The wealth gap happen every way in this world. For example basketball season support to started. Its a lockout because the owner want their money back from the players. Even though the players are not in the middle class or poor. The rich just want more money in their banks. The banks even not safe no more, taking money off of person account and saving. What can we do about this? Its alot of things we can do, such as fight for our right by protested. Don't buy no any kind of product in the mall. I know its numbers of people can make a different. As the same time you need a person that have alot of power to "TRY" to make a change. Only if the rich can given some money to the society and care more, the world can be a better place.
In my opinion "the poor" are poor because they are uneducated about the secrets of making money and how to keep it. I also believe that the majority of people, who are poor, are poor because they did little to get a real career and so forth. The "rich" know what to do with their money and how to prolong their rising incomes. It is all about working hard in life to get to the point where you can become wealthy. That is why many people who have once been poor are now rich. It is about doing the right things in life and taking no short cuts. If you feel as if you are uneducated on how to keep your money, it is very simple to read and educate yourself. Yes, I do believe that our school system and society does not teach us those secrets because it is our responsibility to learn them for ourselves. They cannot share it with everyone because everyone cannot be rich. If everyone was then there would not be a lower or higher class. The wealth gap is increasing because of inflation and the loss of job opportunities but those who want to swim against the current are able to do so because the resources are still there. It is just very hard to do so in order to get to the point of becoming wealthy. Most people give up and get lazy. Those who are wealthy worked hard to get to that point and those who have inherited great wealth have inherited wealth from someone who has also worked hard to get there as well. It is all what you make of yourself.
Krystal Gonzalez
Why do some nations become rich while others remain poor? Traditional mainstream economic growth theory has done little to answer this question—during most of the twentieth century the theory focused on models that assumed growth was a simple function of labor, capital, and technology.
Economic inequality is growing in the world’s richest countries, and the gap between rich and poor has widened over the last 20 years in nearly all the countries studied, even as trade and technological advances have spurred rapid growth in their economies.
According to the economist Anthony Atkinson, the United States has the highest inequality and poverty rates after Mexico and Turkey, and the gap has increased rapidly since 2000. France, meanwhile, has seen inequalities fall in the past 20 years as poorer workers are better paid. Rising inequality threatens social mobility — children doing better than their parents, the poor improving their lot through hard work — which is lower in countries like the U.S., Great Britain and Italy, where inequality is high, than countries with less inequality such as Denmark, Sweden and Australia, the report said. In a 20-year study, economist found inequality had increased in 27 of its 30 members as top earners’ incomes soared while others’ stagnated.
Wealthy households are not only widening the gap with the poor, but in countries such as the U.S., Canada and Germany they are also leaving middle-income earners further behind, with potentially ominous consequences if the global financial crisis sparks a long recession.
-Tania Joseph
I recently read something extremely interesting in the November 14, 2011 issue of Time Magazine. “As Alexis da Tocqueville argued more than 150 years ago, it’s this [American] dream that enables Americans to tolerate much social inequality.”
Of course, I have often wondered what causes my fellow Americans to care so little for those who are less fortunate than them. We have grown up believing in this “American Dream” and that if we work hard enough we will “make it.” So this perpetuates the attitude that anyone who has not achieved this “American Dream” (classified as being a part of the middle class, where a family of four would have an annual income 300% above the poverty line) obviously have not worked hard. They must be lazy it is their fault. But how can one truly earn a “middle class” income when there are so few middle class careers? Or when so many people are being weighed down by medical bills they could not possibly pay back within a reasonable amount of time. Our country has no empathy for each other.
How do we teach empathy to each other? How do we fix this American Dream concept? I believe the only way to regain the middle class is through education. There are no longer middle class factory jobs you can count on without a degree.
-Elizabeth Brady
As the rich get richer, the poor gets more poor. I alwayd heard that saying but now to actually read it and undertand it to my own knowledge and belief, I think that it is true. The rich know ways to incest their money, either that, or they have someone do it fo them. For example, the company Apple. They are known one of the biggest and most successful companies in the world. Why? Because they know exactly what to do with their money. Put money on stocks and bonds and it comes back double for the rich. Now the poor or the low working class on the other hand, you still have people out there who's losing money daily becasue they have the money, but they just dont know where to put there money at. They don't have financial advisors like the rich do. I know some people who rather waste their money on shoes, clothes, and all other unnecessary things. Instead or just putting their money into something small and let it build like that (take a chance if you will), then maybe they can become apart of the statistic of rich or wealthy people. No offense to no one who's working hard for their money. I'm just saying, you got it, find something productive to do with it.
The wealth gap is a big issue in this country, the rich are getting richer while the middle class and the poor are getting poorer. I think is unfair that someone who has a lower income has to pay more taxes than the one who have a higher income, it should be the opposite because poor people need money to cover their needs. Wealthy households are not only widening the gap with the poor, but in countries such as the U.S., Canada and Germany they are also leaving middle-income earners further behind, with potentially ominous consequences if the global financial crisis sparks a long recession.
Yves dessin
The real problem of this is the fact that the middle class is disappearing quickly and there seems to be no solution. I believe that there will always be an unbalance between wealth classes but the major difference is the size of the middle class. A large middle class stimulates everything these are the people who usually bump and grind daily to make a decent living and spend daily on needs. There has to be a fair way to balance the economy. I don’t think it does anyone justice for us to penalize the rich for having earned a luxurious life style. I believe in a equal system. We need to find a way to use the money of the rich to create more jobs. If all we plan is too tax them unjustly then they will just leave the country and take the wealth leaving us in a deeper hole. The rich may pay less taxes but I believe that 50% of Americans don’t even pay taxes so how is that fair in anyway. I don’t think people should get punished for their family success, but yet I understand the dire situation we are in. We must find a way to get the rich to make more jobs and they’ll get profit as well as help grow the middle class.
Xabier Martinez-Cid
The wealth gap is one of the biggest issues that this country face, the rich keep making money and penalized for it as much as we would want them, the poor keep losing money or remain the same, and there is no middle class anymore. I think it’s unacceptable that 1 percent of the country controls most of the income this country receives. You have to also understand that we cannot do much because the rich elected their own officials so that they can keep making money and not lose much at all. The rich don’t care about the poor, and the only reason that they donate money is so that they don’t get tax. We must do something before it’s too late, there will come a time when we must say enough and rise against the riches and Wall Street and demand that the wealth gap becomes more fair to others so that we may regain our middle class which has been lost. In conclusion I believe that one day we will have an even take in the income of the country and I also believe that it will make this country better and stronger and also more secure and reliable not just for us but the rest of the world.
I have to say I agree with those who believe many of us work too hard to reach "The American Dream" when in reality it is becoming much harder for us to make it. There's a big gap betwwen working class and rich people. It would be unrealistic for me to say that we all should own the same amount of wealth, in fact that is impossible. I do not mind people having lots of money, but only those who work hard for it. Many wealthy families have so much money because it has passed from previous generations. The way for us to try to fix this is to become part of it, get involve in your community and get more involved with politics and that way a better future for this country will lay in your hands.
We have to realize that the gap between the rich and poor is never going to come to an end. From my perspective, first that will not be possible because while the poor is trying to escape from reality that is living, the rich is getting “richer, wealthier” and the poor is either getting poorer or climbing little by little to reach a low –medium class. So with today’s economy we are seeing how the United States of America which is among the more affluent and wealthy nation’s shows that most of the wealth has been concentrated with a very small percentage of people. Which mean that medium class is disappearing and that is very problematic because the poor is never going to have that chance to succeed .
It is certain that the issue of a wealth gap has become more prevalent over the past years. The gap is continually stretching, and the rage has become more evident through protest movements such as “Occupying Miami”. The unemployment rate has peaked, more people have become unable to pay their debts in a manageable amount of time, and numerous college students are unable to find jobs to pay loans after investing years of education. Despite the political outrage that could be produced, I agree with many of my classmates that one powerful solution would be to increase taxes to the rich, so that it could create more jobs and social opportunities to the poor, thus helping to establish a middle class, and a better standard of living. On the other hand, the Employment Act of 1946 holds the federal government and more specifically the President of the United States responsible of creating jobs to alleviate economic downturns such as the one we are currently experiencing. However, the jobs that could be created might not be the overall solution to the gap we are trying to emend.
the wealth gap is the reality of society always for the rich people it is easy to become richer, more opportunities to make more money and better jobs; for the poor is harder everything get a job, high income etc. The income disparity between the rich and poor is a function of many factors. However, the largest responsibility for the gap can be laid at the feet of politicians. Their never ending desire to be re-elected always leads them to create policies that favor one party over another......tax policies being the most often used for that purpose. I believe a reduction in government bureaucrotization (with a corresponding reduction in rules and regulations) would allow the free market to once again function. When the size of the overall economic pie increases, everyone will benefit.
also is harder that old people and young people get a good job, we need to try to maintain stable the middle class so thus people don't became part of the poverty.
I do care about the wealth gap issue of our nation. The future of our country for upcoming generation is at risk because after years of giving tax breaks to the rich believing something would trickle-down on the rest of us, we now have a very clear picture of the trickle-down theory and it isn’t pretty. Our cutting-edge tax structure that created a strong middle class after the great depression was tossed aside when too many of us believed the corporate spin to give our country's wealth to the top 1%. This country's income inequality is real and has gotten so extreme here that the US now ranks 93rd in the world in "income equality." China's ahead of us. So is India. So is Iran. We are shrinking the middle class and without the middle class we will no longer be a great nation. The cost of goods is going up yet the wages are staying the same. The dollar is dropping and the stocks are showing the pinch. The unemployment rate is rising.
-Ramondina Jean Joseph
Unfortunately for the middle class they now are facing two paths, rich or poor. The middle class is disappearing and this is horrible for society in the sense that blue collar jobs will no longer be available. So who is to suffer? Everyone. The rich may be getting richer but they are not to be blamed by their financial success, the poor may be getting poorer but that doesn't mean they should just give up and beat themselves up about it. I was always taught growing up, if I want something- I must work hard to get it. Unfortunately for some people, it isn't that easy. A possible solution can be that instead of them protesting and finding different ways to change the government for their own good, they should just be working harder to get what they want without whining about it because not everyone's words are heard so loudly. A movement like occupymiami, has done a lot with the help of many but despite the fact that this movement is going out throughout the whole country it is still going on because everything takes time. So go on and protest for something smaller than occupymiami or keep on working on striving to do better? I'd make the best out of it with optimism to get out of my current situation and keep working hard for what I want.
The wealth gap is a big issue in this country and the rest of the world, the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. I believe this is a very unfair situation because the low-income people do not have the opportunities to get out of poverty. Who’s fault is it? Well, if you grew up in a low-income or poor family chances are is that you are going to have a very low education level. This means that you will only have up to your high school diploma or some college. So this will not get you very good job opportunities. In addition, is getting harder and harder to find a job and the job field is becoming more competitive every day, so this is making harder and harder for poor people to get a better life and opportunities for their families.
The wealth gap is a big issue in this country and the rest of the world, the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. I believe this is a very unfair situation because the low-income people do not have the opportunities to get out of poverty. Who’s fault is it? Well, if you grew up in a low-income or poor family chances are is that you are going to have a very low education level. This means that you will only have up to your high school diploma or some college. So this will not get you very good job opportunities. In addition, is getting harder and harder to find a job and the job field is becoming more competitive every day, so this is making harder and harder for poor people to get a better life and opportunities for their families. Angie Paez
I don't think my other post went through so I wil rewrite it.
The article describes a common perception on what the status quo is. Whites have more than blacks. Its sounds like a racial slur yet the statistics prove it. When one has wealth, it usually transcends time so that it can be kept and upkept. Poverty unfortunately, functions in a similar way. Those who can't provide fo themselves have less to provide for the next generation. Affluence is pretty much maintained by those families who had it in the first place namely in the hands of white. If there is to be some change in balance the rich will have to give to the poor since it does not work the other way around. However, the decision is unfair seeing as the money has been worked to be attained. Only in a society where everyone lives on equal footing will there be some type of balance. However such utopian ideals are the foundation for communism which doesn't see to correct the issue either. The money has to change hands willingly in order for the transition to go over smoothly otherwise the rich will become richer leaving poverty to haunt everyone else.
Michael Lawrence
Attempt #2
My opinion on the wealth gap is that while some may argue that it is necessary for their to be a high, middle, and low class structured system, the gaps have become so obscenely distant as to become irrevocably unequal. Isolating the phenomena to the United States, the middle class which is the backbone and lifeblood of our economy, has shrunk exponentially, while poverty has run rampant among the lower class. The discrepancy in income between households is rapidly reaching an unsustainable level, with less and less household able to bear the brunt of federal taxes that the top income earners, and te least, are not as susceptible to. The true victims of the wealth gap aren't those who were already struck by poverty, but those considered to be middle class who have had to suffer their income, taken in taxes, to bail out banks and big companies, while the same treatment is not extended to them.
Susan Guerra
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