Income Inequality in United States Inequality refers to the unfair distribution of resources within a community

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Income Inequality in United States

Inequality refers to the unfair distribution of resources within a community, and this can be such that some groups in society receives more opportunities than the others (Pigou). In the United States, the state of inequality is greatly evident even though the American dream still deems to reign in the country. There has been a widening gap between the rich and the poor as well as the young and the old and to which has largely been ignored by the policymakers. The America dream aimed at providing equal opportunities for the people to thrive, but this has just been a dream as there is nothing like an equal opportunity for all. The realization of the American dream, therefore, has just been a scam that only promises better things only to deliver the worst part of it.

Income inequality is one of the biggest issues that face the American nation in the present day (Omi). A large number of people have been separated by the thin lines of poverty while the rest are rich and this triggers the question as to whether the income inequality is that bad. Income inequality has been on the rise at an alarming rate. According to statistics, 400 wealthiest individuals in the United States have more wealth compared to the poorest Americans that rage to around 150 million combined and this imply that the top individuals that contribute to 0.1 percent of the population of the united states are worth more than the rest of the people at the bottom, that is 90 percent (Formisano).

According to Teixeira, “The economic growth has done far much better than any redistributive program could. Focusing on income inequality doesn’t help the poor” (Teixeira, 306). Teixeira argues that capitalism has the ability to promote economic growth and this works due to the provision of incentives whereby the incentives naturally result in income inequality. Despite the rise in income inequality, Teixeira argues that all the members of the society in the American nation are better off with capitalism. And therefore, according to Teixeira, the increase in income inequality doesn’t really matter, and therefore income inequality isn’t that bad.

Teixeira argues that capitalism has played a crucial role in the alleviation of poverty. She says that “Almost two billion people have been pulled out of poverty by capitalism alone” (Teixeira, 306) and this postulates that she is of the idea that a nation is more comfortable with a few wealthy individuals than having an economy whereby everyone has equal opportunities. Teixeira thus argues that “it is the best poverty program that the human mind has ever created” (Teixeira, 306). She thus disputes that capitalism promotes the exploitation of the poor people in a country, but instead it helps in alleviating poverty, as according to her, the problem is poverty and not the income inequality that faces the people in the American nation.

Teixeira argues that “It is the obvious moral imperative to take care of the poor” and as well provide the poor with dignity in the attempt to aid them out of poverty. According to Teixeira, she is of the perspective that only capitalism would have the capability of providing solutions of helping the poor out of poverty, of which the income inequality isn’t able to eliminate the poverty. According to the arguments brought forth by Teixeira, she doesn’t clearly explain how the issue of poverty can be solved without addressing the problem of income inequality.

According to statistics, socio-economic status is a strong predictor of the academic as well as the economic success of a country, and it is for this reason that the poor have been pushed to the edge, being more disadvantaged in the chase of the American dream due to income inequalities (Teixeira, 306). Despite believing in capitalism, to solve the problem of poverty, the imperfect system that focuses only on capitalism needs to be repaired to accommodate also the address to income inequality. Positive capitalism that is aimed at addressing and helping the people out of poverty is highly acknowledged, but despite that, it would be an act of irresponsibility for the failure to address the flaws of income inequality.

The idea that is perpetuated by capitalism is that the rich in the society work harder and this perpetuates inappropriate stereotyping about the poor (Obama, 308). It portrays a picture that the poor in the society are lazy and stupid and due to that, they deserve to be poor. Capitalism makes villains out of the poor, and this portrays a negative image about a people that the American dream argued that all people in the society have an equal opportunity in the realization of their dreams. It is therefore important that people be more vigilant in addressing the issues of poverty in that they should not forsake to address the issue of income inequality with the mere grounds that they have not experienced it by themselves. The reason is that the personal backgrounds of a person influence their perception on how they view things and therefore if a person hasn’t been faced by the issue of income inequality, they should not just ignore it but have to reconsider the other people’s opinions.

The American dream provides for equal opportunities for all, and therefore everybody has a fair chance of attaining college education (Teixeira, 310). Education has the ability to benefit the whole society as it is not a resource that is subject to devaluation as more people are granted access to, and therefore every individual should be granted an equal chance to education no matter their social, economic class. Education is not a privilege but a right, and therefore everybody should have access to college education whether or not they are poor. Providing equal chances in education plays a significant role in reducing the problem of inequality in society and therefore aids in the achievement of the American dream.

Work Cited

Barack Obama. The defining challenges of our times. From a speech delivered on December, 2013.

Formisano, Ronald P. Plutocracy in America: How Increasing Inequality Destroys the Middle Class and Exploits the Poor. JHU Press, 2015.

Mimi Teixeira. Is income inequality really is that bad.

Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. Racial formation in the United States. Routledge, 2014.

Our Battered economy. Is the American Dream over?

Pigou, Arthur. The economics of welfare. Routledge, 2017.