...taking 4 billion of Bill Gate’s 6 billion dollars and distributing it out to give every single American a free college tuition. Huey Long held similar views to spread the wealth, which he gave in his speech “Every Man a KIng”. Huey Long’s speech, “Every Man a King”, was monumental because it gave hope to millions of depressed common citizens, and was highly supported throughout the country. The background of the time period, the popularity of Huey Long, and the influence of his speech help account for its significant impact. The historical background and time period of Long’s speech help account for his exigence. Huey Long gave this historic speech February 23, 1934. During this period of time the United States was experiencing an...
Words: 1033 - Pages: 5
...The Arithmetic of Inequality Jimmy is a second grader. He pays attention in school, and he enjoys it. School records show that he is reading slightly above grade level and has a slightly better than average IQ. Bobby is a second grader across town. He also pays attention in class and enjoys school, and his test scores are similar to Jimmy's. Bobby is a safe bet to enter college (more than four times as likely as Jimmy) and a good bet to complete it -- at least twelve times as likely as Jimmy. Bobby will probably have at least four years more schooling than Jimmy. He is twenty seven times as likely as Jimmy to land a job which by his late forties will pay him an income in the top tenth of all incomes. Jimmy has about one chance in eight of earning a median income (Bassis, 1991:216). I. Basic Definitions A. Life Chances Life chances refer to one's access to resources. Life chances can refer to one's ability to get food and shelter. It also refers to access to social institution such as health care, education, the government, and the law (to mention a few). Social class affects one's life chances across a broad spectrum of social phenomenon from health care, to educational attainment, to participation in the political process, to contact with the criminal justice system. B. What is Social Stratification? Social stratification refers to the division of a society into layers (or strata) whose occupants have unequal access to social opportunities and rewards. People in the top strata...
Words: 5484 - Pages: 22
...during the 1920’s | Diamond Jackson | | History II Dr. Hilton | | | Upton Sinclairs’ The Jungle is a common form of muckraking during the 20’s. The book is about a Lithuanian family who relocated to the US in hopes of finding success and building better lives. After hearing the story of how America supports the idea of freedom, and has unlimited opportunity, the main character Jurgis is convinced America was the place to be. Once arriving to America and coming in contact with the reality of the myth of his ideal society, Jurgis exposes the deeply rooted capitalism and the effects and problems that it causes. Because of this, Sinclair feels that socialism is the remedy to the capitalistic conditions he’s now a part of. Andrew Carnegies’ The Gospel of Wealth is a viewpoint of how beneficial capitalism is to American society and economy which is seen through the eyes of a high-class businessperson. Carnegie discusses the history of there being an equal society, the natural law of competition, and the capitalistic results and benefits. Sinclairs’ The Jungle and Carnegies’ The Gospel of Wealth are opposing viewpoints, therefore when it comes to the unequal distribution of wealth and ideas about capitalism and socialism both arguments are supportive and reasonable to a certain extent. In the 1920’s, the unequal distribution of wealth is evident and Americans start to see many cultural changes. America has now adopted the idea of conspicuous consumption which...
Words: 1067 - Pages: 5
...Top Ethical Pilgrims Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales depicts a wide range of characters of different class, ages, background, and financial background, and each of these components have an effect the pilgrim’s morality. Chaucer portrays four characters in particular as more principled than the rest: The Knight, the Parson, the Clerk, and the Yeman. These four virtuous characters share common ethical traits, the most important being the motivation to help others, the next rejecting luxury, and the last showing skill in their jobs. Chaucer bases morality on the motivation to help others before yourself, a trait that these four principled characters have in common. Helping others ranks first as the most important virtuous trait because improving the...
Words: 1075 - Pages: 5
...Wealth and economics changed through the centuries as did people’s opinions on wealth. A few authors showed their view on wealth through short stories such as ‘The Devil and Tom Walker’ and ‘The Devil and Daniel Webster.’ ‘The Devil and Tom Walker’ was written in the year 1824, in which the start up of small businesses, factories, and industries happened. There was such a difference between the poor and the rich. Money was hard to come by in that time; translated from history into the story, our main character named Tom Walker wanted more wealth and he made a deal with the devil. Through his actions, it showed how too much money can make people corrupt and evil, as were the rich company owners of the time; they were considered corrupt and...
Words: 258 - Pages: 2
...but an obligation for all business. Corporate social responsibility is no longer defined by how much money a company contributes to charity, but by its overall involvement in activities that improve the quality of people’s lives. Corporate Responsibility has come up as a significant subject matter in the international business community and is progressively becoming a mainstream activity. There is mounting recognition of the momentous effect the activities of the private sector have on the workforce, clientele, the society, the environment, competitors, business associates, investors, shareholders, governments and others groups. It is also becoming progressively clear that organizations can contribute to their individual wealth and to overall community wealth by taking into account the effect they have on the entire globe when making decisions (Anderson 5). Ethics of...
Words: 1659 - Pages: 7
...between countries. In economy each nation sets policy to manage its resources to maximize the benefits of trade for its people. Government makes policy not only concerning trade with other but also the degree to which the state is involved. Government try to optimize it’s production level and try to increase GDP with maximum utilization of available resources. In other hand when trade increases between nations, the allocation of resources will redistribute among goods and pricing where countries can experience different transitional cycle of trades. There will be gains and losses perceived for some input factors from the redistribution of wealth. Many economists in today’s business world agree that globalization provides benefit to individual economies around the world by making markets more efficient, increasing competition and spreading wealth more equally around the world. However, still many others assume that the costs associated with globalization outweigh the benefits, which has caused many problems. Growing income inequality and widening gap between richer and poorer are major problems seen in today’s world economy. In free international trade, the capital and the technology can flow across political borders. Redistribution of these resources will improve the efficiency of the output and increase the income worldwide. On the contrary, another point is liberal economic globalization widens the...
Words: 750 - Pages: 3
...between countries. In economy each nation sets policy to manage its resources to maximize the benefits of trade for its people. Government makes policy not only concerning trade with other but also the degree to which the state is involved. Government try to optimize it’s production level and try to increase GDP with maximum utilization of available resources. In other hand when trade increases between nations, the allocation of resources will redistribute among goods and pricing where countries can experience different transitional cycle of trades. There will be gains and losses perceived for some input factors from the redistribution of wealth. Many economists in today’s business world agree that globalization provides benefit to individual economies around the world by making markets more efficient, increasing competition and spreading wealth more equally around the world. However, still many others assume that the costs associated with globalization outweigh the benefits, which has caused many problems. Growing income inequality and widening gap between richer and poorer are major problems seen in today’s world economy. In free international trade, the capital and the technology can flow across political borders. Redistribution of these resources will improve the efficiency of the output and increase the income worldwide. On the contrary, another point is liberal economic globalization widens the...
Words: 750 - Pages: 3
...Wealth distribution in the United States Economy Has the United States come out of the recession of the late 2000’s as a whole, or has only the top one percent been growing richer? Very often at college, work, or even the local bar everyone is talking about the shrinking middle class. “Rich get richer poor get poorer”. Is this really true, or are people just complaining? Can the financial strength of the top one percent be destroying the economy of the United States? Does the wealthy have more money and want more of it, crushing the world’s largest economy? The question, “Does income inequality hurt economic growth” must be asked. In the years after “The Great Recession” of the late 2000’s the United States has had a small steady...
Words: 1648 - Pages: 7
...responsible for the overall well being of his nation's citizens. Some responsibilities include promoting quality, free education, adequate health care, child care, and better public transportation, while a homeless person is free to do whatever he or she wants. Nevertheless, homeless people will usually beg for money in public places and some homeless people will perform by playing musical instruments in subways or on the street, so that they can earn a few dollars. Often, homeless people are otherwise normal citizens who became overwhelmed by mental problems or other emotionally disabling conditions. An average homeless person doesn't have personal wealth or at least the means to access wealth. A homeless person often is born into this struggle to make ends meet from the start. On the other hand, a president has more than enough wealth for an average person to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle. In some third world countries, the President often takes advantage of their corrupt policies and are at times exposed for stealing money from the government or accepting dirty money to fill their personal bank...
Words: 549 - Pages: 3
...thinker of Communist movement. One of his most crucial contributions to socialism is the four theories of labor, one of which is the theory of exploitation. In the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx presents his theory of classes, which is the foundation for his theory of exploitation. At his time, industrialization was taking place in many large cities and the working class was forced into poverty. The worsening situation of the working class made him believe in the labor exploitation by capitalist class. Exploitation is not unique to capitalism. Throughout the history, it has always been a feature of all class societies, which are divided into two main classes, the class of the exploited which produces most wealth, and the class of the exploiters which expropriates the wealth. However, there is an important difference between exploitation under slavery and feudalism and that under capitalism. Under slavery and feudalism, exploitation is obvious to both the exploited and exploiters. Under capitalism, however, it is well hidden by the labor-wage system and private property right. It seems to be an equal exchange that workers are hired, labor for a given amount of time, and receive their wages. But this is not a case of justice for Marx. To Marx, labor is a commodity, whose price – wages – is also determined by supply and demand just like any other commodities, so workers can be exploited through wage – an amount of payment far from enough to compensate for what they produce for the...
Words: 1472 - Pages: 6
...realistic. However, the gap in wealth inequality that has been growing since around that time seems to be shutting down hope. The ladder that stretches from the lower class to the upper class is getting longer and more arduous to climb. Opportunities that lead to success are limited the further down one would go into the lower class. Motivation is diminished because of the slighter chance of becoming satisfyingly successful. Because of this, there needs to be a way to narrow the gap between rich and poor. Wealth redistribution poses as a possible effective solution to fix the exceedingly large gap in wealth inequality. There is plenty of evidence to show that the wealth inequality gap in the United States is exceedingly high. As shown in Figure 1 (Wealth Inequality in America 2012), Americans are aware of the wide gap, and even conclude that the gap should be narrower and wealth should be more evenly distributed. However, the chart on the top shows the reality of wealth distribution. It is remarkably skewed, and exceptionally different from the popular vision of the distribution chart, not...
Words: 2098 - Pages: 9
...Consumerism and the Impact of Social Class “People in a consumer society consume to improve their quality of life; there are costs associated with this practice (financial, time, ecological, societal and human) for the individual and the collective” (McGregor). Associated in this piece is the concentration in the belief of consumerism’s affect on the societal structure in terms of the social class standards, between lower, middle, and upper class sections. The dependent variable is consumerism; the rise in spending and its involvement and impact in the economy and social standards of today’s society. Independent variable is the focus of socioeconomic status and social class; concerning the idea that wealth allows greater amounts of consuming, however the lower class strives for similar status in the material and nonmaterial goods. Factors that provide consumerism in society and the economy are the buying of consumer goods, which has expanded in recent decades to national and global lengths. Consumerism is said to be the reason that the U.S. had turned citizens into shoppers, making Americans less free to the economy and the market. Globalization; the process of goods and services over national boundaries, is a rising factor, due to the buying, selling and networking of products globally. Countries like the U.S. China have benefitted by the globalization, but also have impacted their society and culture, from the influence of cultural differences, negatively and positively...
Words: 1768 - Pages: 8
...| The Wealth Divide Continues | American Government | | Charles Hatley | HCC Sienna | Fall Semester | The United States of America is supposed to be a nation where everyone is created equal. A nation where everyone is supposed to have an equal chance. But looking at the huge gap between the wealth divide of our nation and the many problems it creates you would think otherwise. The rich continue to get richer and the poor get poorer while the government makes it even harder for the middle and lower class to stay out of poverty. Lack of affordable public housing and also lack of middle income housing are a few of the problems. The Gap in the wealth divide along with these two problems makes life very difficult for middle class and lower class to survive during these hard economic times. “Affordable housing is a term used to describe dwelling units whose total housing costs are deemed "affordable" to those that have a median income. Although the term is often applied to rental housing that is within the financial means of those in the lower income ranges of a geographical area, the concept is applicable to both renters and purchasers in all income ranges.” (Wikipedia) In The United States and Canada the accepted guideline for being able to afford a house is a cost that does not go over 30% of a household’s gross income. The costs include taxes, insurance and utility costs...
Words: 1663 - Pages: 7
...eventually be able to get later in our lives. Without rich people, we wouldn’t have all the stuff that we have now. If it wasn’t for innovators like John D Rockefeller, Steve Jobs, or Bill Gates, we would not have the stuff that we have now like cars or computers or iPads. “Income inequality in a capitalist system I truly beautiful because it provides the incentive for creative people to gamble on new ideas and it turns luxuries into common goods.” (Washington Post)....
Words: 747 - Pages: 3
