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Inequality In The United States

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Inequality of income is greater in the United States than in other capitalist countries. What do you think explains this? Is there something unjust about extreme inequality?
According to the textbook, “… the income distribution in the United States became more equal throughout the twentieth century until about 1973, and the proportion of people living in poverty fell” (Shaw & Barry, 2016, p. 135). Since then, I think that the United States has been able to become more developed even though not everyone has been able to develop with it. Not everyone makes the same income, in fact, more people are less fortunate than others. As of right now, I work as a teller in Jefferson City, Missouri full-time. I am only making 11.50 an hour which really …show more content…
There are still many people who are not going to college and going to work straight out of high school. Therefore, they are not always going to get the same job opportunities as those who did get a college degree. They may be starting out at local businesses or fast food restaurant’s making minimum wage while the people who furthered their education are starting out making $40,000 a year. The gap will continue to grow between these two as the years continue, thus creating an inequality of income. Top management of companies around the world are making way more than the front-line employees under them. According to the textbook, “In the real world, the gap between the top and the bottom is often enormous, reflecting a significant difference between each separate position. In a just world that honored the goal of equality as well as efficiency, the gap would not have to be as great” (Shaw et al., 2016, p. 139). For example, there are many different positions a person can hold in the military from the president to the lower enlisted. The pay gap in between this personnel is ridiculously large, but that is the world we live in. Lastly, a persons income most of the time is determined based on their …show more content…
Unfortunately, inequality of income will always exist; however, it would be nice to see the gap decrease between the rich and the poor. This is supposed to be the land of opportunity, so I would like to see a better distribution of income. “If we opt for complete equality, our productive system will collapse. If we opt for the most efficient possible system, we will suffer from extreme inequality as we do now” (Shaw et al., 2016, p. 140). There should be a happy medium for the United States to be able to operate on and less people at the extremes. Therefore, the people who do work hard will still be in the upper percentage of their class. A person should get paid based on their performance, not because they are at the bottom of the totem pole. However, even if they are they should still be paid enough to be able to get through life without always having to struggle to feed their family or pay their bills. If pay was based on people’s performance, people would be working harder and this could truly help decrease inequality in the United

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