...This week’s reading, article “Income Inequality: Too Big to Ignore” Robert H. Frank provides several explanations for the rising income inequality in the United States by looking at the 100 most populous counties in the country. He begins by analyzing the three decades that followed WWII and points out that they were decades in which incomes across the board rose both equally and rapidly. He then follows this discussion by looking at the last three decades (1980-present) and points out that in this period the income share of the top 1% rose from 8.9% to 23.5%. Frank uses the results obtained from his working paper “Expenditure Cascades” to stress the importance of income equality. His studies show a strong positive correlation between income inequality and financial distress in terms of divorce rates and the commute times. As the gap between the upper and lower tail incomes in the economy widens, divorce rates increase and commute times get longer as a result of urbanization and booms in the housing markets. Even though the data collected offers a stable ground for argument, the extent to which increases in the divorce rates were primarily fueled by financial distress depend on the country’s sociopolitical and economic stance at that time. Thus, a cross-sectional study between divorce rates and income inequality should look at year-specific cohorts to correct for any lurking variables such as the impact of war, political unrest, or age at marriage. The financial distress...
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...neighborhood and state levels disconnected them from classrooms and restrooms, from theaters and train cars, from juries and assemblies. African Americans have been treated unequally for many years and equality is still elusive for blacks in today’s society. Economic gains African Americans have dealt with inequality for many years and still can’t seem to achieve equality. In the article “Equality still elusive 50 years after civil rights act,” Richard Wolf (2014) mentioned that African Americans have made a huge impact on society throughout the years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, there are many achievements done by an African American, but they still seem to lack in catching up to the white race. African Americans has helped obtain many things in this world and has set marks and have made history, but can’t be able to surpass those of...
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...Social stratification- is systematic inequalities among groups of people 1. Wealth and income (social class) 2. Racial inequality 3. Gender inequality. Equality/inequality -Ontological equality -Equality of opportunity -Equality of condition -Equality of outcome Why inequality exists? Inequality in wealth and access to resources is generated by three processes: 1.) Unequal division of labor and/or low mobility across occupations. 2.) Surplus or abundance of resources 3.) The desire to accumulate wealth and assets Types of social mobility: mobility refers to movement between different position within a system of social stratification 1. Horizontal 2. Vertical 3. Structural 4. Exchange Why the class structure is changing -Massive growth in inequality between the rich and the poor. Called the “Great U-Turn” -Shrinking of the working class, with some growth in middle class and working poor. -Growth of poverty and the “underclass” -Rate of poverty is increasing twice as fast as population growth Why income inequality is increasing -Largely due to the increasing concentration of wealth at the very top of the income distribution. consequences of income inequality -High levels of income inequality reduces social cohesion, overall health, overall wealth, and education -Increases crime, debt, and political polarization Social construction of race -Instead, social scientists argue that “race” is socially constructed. Racial...
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...Fischer Gender Inequality in a Global Perspective What is Gender Inequality? Like others, a social problem that is widespread in American society is Gender inequality. It is a problem that has had a negative impact on American society. Gender inequality can be found in many sub-systems of America. It is important to understand what gender inequality is in order to identify and correct the problem. Two sub-systems that gender inequality can be found are in the family and in the workplace. Gender inequality, in my definition, is the unequal and biased treatment between the two sexes. I strongly believe that the unequal treatment of women is something that should have stayed in original times. We are in the present now and we are far more advanced than we ever were and yet we are old school in our thinking of how men and women should be treated. I can strongly identify with gender inequality because many of my closest friends have faced it or still face it. Materialist theories define gender inequality as a result of how men and women are tied to the economic structure of society. They believe that women’s role as a mother and wife are devalued by society and deny access to highly respected public opportunities. Gender stratification refers to the ranking of the sexes in such a way that women are unequal in power, resources, prestige, or worth. Materialist theories indicate that gender stratification is increased where women’s work is dedicated toward the family and men’s...
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...the interests of capitalism - this includes the family, and they say that it serves the interests of capitalism by maintaining and advocating the class inequality and exploitation by the rich through the primary socialisation of children; the family socialises children into accepting this upper class hierarchy and inequality. The parent’s power over their children gets the children used to the idea that someone is always in charge, which prepares them for working, where they will contribute to capitalism by adhering to orders from their employers. If the children continue to socialise with children of the same class, with similar norms and values, the inequality will continue to be thought of as right and they will socialise their children this way too - carrying the inequalities through multiple generations. However, if children are socialising with different classes in secondary socialisation, they may begin to question the inequality and change how they view this, this may therefore lead them to not want to work for the upper class, or in contrast, they may not want to have the lower classes working for their own benefits of profit. The family is also an important market for the sale of consumer goods because advertisers encourage families to be in competition with each other and to keep buying all the latest products and technology. This is one of the ways that Marxists view the family as serving capitalism, because the family...
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...Name Course title Instructor Due date Economic Inequalities “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair revolves around a couple that just got married and is celebrating their marriage in a bar, at an area referred to as Packingtown in Chicago. The two who just got married are Jurgis Rudkus and Ona Lukpszaite. The newlyweds and some of their relatives have come to Packingtown in search for a better life, thou it is difficult to secure a job at Packingtown (Sinclair 27). The couple is in debt, and since the visitors at the party are impoverished immigrants, they do not expect any money to be left behind. Jurgis is a young and hardworking man and gets a job as is it applied to Ona’s cousin and brother of Ona’s stepmother. The family decides to combine efforts and buy a house, but with time they realize they were cheated. There are so many hidden charges and also, the house is shoddy and lowly maintained house. It was logical for every member looking for employment to meet up with the increasing cost of life. The father to Jurgis finds a difficult job and is forced to pay the person who helped him get the job a third of the wages given to him. The job was hard and it killed the old man. Due to the struggles, the immigrants risk their life for pay. Pregnant women cannot have enough time to raise the kid; an example is Jurgis wife who only stayed seven days after giving birth. Immigrants are forced into crime and the town is full of corrupt officials. There is a wide margin between the rich and...
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...nations. While these measures have traditionally focused on social and economic data, recent trends have extended to address other features. One important aspect in this regard is the underlying societal gender discrimination and the diverse outcome for males and females. This is commonly referred to as gender inequality. According to Dorius and Firebaugh (2010), gender inequality is where one gender possesses an excessively large proportion of valued items, such as political influence, wages or good health. Although every region of the world has developed policies and laws to tackle gender inequality, Asia-Pacific has countries with varying social and economic circumstances. This essay will examine gender inequality in two Asia-Pacific states, namely China and Singapore. The essay will consider employment and family-based gender inequality in each nation and assess the similarities and differences between them. Gender inequality has major impacts on nations, in particular on the Asia-Pacific zone. Francisco (2007) delineates various forms of inequality, namely mortality, natality, basic facility, special opportunity, professional, ownership and household forms of inequality. In this field, Jutting, Morrison, Dayton- Johnson and Drechsler (2008) argue that gender equality is vital to promote economic growth, wealth creation and poverty reduction. As an illustration, the Asia-Pacific region foregoes approximately 2-4 percent of GDP per year due to low female workforce participation...
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...Income inequality in Turkey and its causes and effects on the Turkish population Maastricht University | | | | School of Business & Economics | | | | Place & date: | Maastricht,08 December 2014 | Name, initials: | Canli, T | ID number: | 6091093 | Study: | International Business | Course code: | ebc1009 | Group number: | 1 | Tutor name: | Pierfrancesco, Guarino | Writing tutor name: | Campbell, Gabriel | Writing assignment: | Main Paper (Task 10) | | | t.canli@maastrichtuniversity.nl Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2 2. Income Inequality and its components 2 3. Gini coefficient and inequality 3 4. Turkey´s economic structure 3 5. Wage distribution in Turkey 4 6. Main causes of inequality 5 6.1 Return on capital and increase of economic input 5 6.2 Relationships between people and social mobility 5 7. Effects on Turkish population 6 7.1 Education, child labor and social mobility 6 8. Possible solutions 7 9. Conclusion 8 10. Works Cited 9 11. Figures 10 12. Tables 10 1. Introduction In the past decades the topic “Economic Inequality” has risen in popularity. The reason for this trend is mostly because economic inequality has risen drastically around the world. There are many forms of economic inequality, e.g. gender inequality, regional disparities, and wage inequality, only to name a few. Thus many politicians are discussing about economic inequality, particularly in Turkey. The largest driving...
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...Chapter 13 discusses education and work, it explains their roles and functions in our culture and society. More specifically, the chapter analyses education and schools as a complex institution, with their fundamental functions from a sociological perspective, and their connections to equality and inequality. One concept in the chapter that I found interesting was the social reproduction theory which explores how schools reproduce and reinforce inequalities. The chapter continues to state that “theorists argue that social and economic inequalities are built into the experience of schooling” (pg. 333) due to unequal access to resource and opportunities. Primarily the focus was on the economic inequality playing a major role in the resources...
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...Running head: ANALYSIS OF FAMILY GUY INEQUALITIES Analysis of Family Guy Sexism Nash, Josh SOC/100 Analysis of Family Guy Sexism This paper discusses the display of sexism of Family Guy and how it is portraying a sexist view, even if it is considered comical socially. Family Guy has become a popular cartoon even with the humor in the show not being so humorous to many. “Family Guy”, as many other shows have done in the past, obtained the role in portraying sexism through TV. Many would agree that the cartoon is derogatory and promotes many issues such as racism, sexism, and inequalities including other factors as well. People also agree that the comedy that the show presents is acceptable because it is shown in a way that is for laughter only. There have been a number of episodes that the show has done like “Chick Cancer,” and probably one of the most controversial, “I am Peter, hear me roar”. The behavior shown is that of “slap stick” comedy but could be attained in other ways than of what is shown on television. In “I am Peter, hear me roar,” the episode is sexist towards women and does not show much of an issue towards the problem. Each scene has a number of jokes to make sexism seem acceptable by the jokes being told by a character that does not have the intelligible mindset of a small child. It begins with Peter telling jokes to some of his male co-workers and the jokes that Peter shares are explicitly sexist against women. He begins with saying, “How many women...
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...Lane Kenworthy in Chapter Two of his book, Jobs with Equality, lays out a various reasons why one should care about inequality. Kensworth, however, spends a bulk of the chapter discussing the results of inequality based on some data in addition to a host of speculative ideas that should make the reader more interested and focused on inequality in their society. The excerpt does focus heavily on the lowest income brackets in society making the distinction between poverty and inequality difficult to identify. While he demonstrates through survey data that people are concerned about inequality, his findings support the notion that individuals should care about low equality because as the top earners have gotten wealthier, the percent of the population in poverty. Kenworthy struggles to put forward an argument that shows how greater inequality is detrimental to economic growth. Kenworthy write that, “ high levels of inequality may be viewed by those at the middle and bottom of the income distribution as excessively unfair, thereby reducing worker motivation and workplace cooperation” (16). While this statement may sound like a plausible effect of high inequality, Kenworthy is only speculating and not supporting his statement with specific data. Could it be possible that due to inequality those in the lower classes have a greater incentive to work because they know that if they receive a promotion, their salary will grow substantially? This variable would also be quite difficult...
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...The growing problem of income inequality in New Zealand and around the world will have significant effects on the consumption or work, goods and services by myself and my family and society as a whole. This essay will discuss these effects on consumption should this inequality continue on its current path. I will begin by discussing income inequality and the evidence of it today and the issues that this inequality creates in society. The essay will then give an overview of my current position in society and the market and I will then discuss some issues and future implications of income inequality and how they will shape the consumption of work, goods and services by my family and myself. This section will also consider how the psychological aspects of consumption could be affected by income inequality and deal with the social ramifications of this inequality and look at any possible changes to our consumption from a cultural sense. This essay will argue that income inequality can have significant potential to change the future consumption of work, goods and services by myself and my family. The concept of income inequality is not new it has been discussed by politicians and economists for a number of years if not centuries, as the old adage says ‘the rich get richer the poor get poorer’. The ministry of social development defines it as, “The extent of disparity between high income and low income households” (Ministry of Social Development, 2010) and it essentially deals with...
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...Gender Inequality in Modern Day Cartoons Children often enjoy waking up extra early on Saturday and Sunday mornings because they know that they can enjoy warm pancakes, bacon, and eggs, and especially early morning cartoons. Weekend morning cartoons are always enjoyable to watch because they are simply hilarious. They usually consist of funny and innocent violence that is meant to attract a younger audience. Children are able to watch cartoons carelessly and laugh, not realizing how gender inequality or even racism is displayed in cartoons today. Research by Jerry A. Jacobs and Kathleen Gerson (2004) states that “gender inequality exists typically when women have less power than men or vice versa, and this can either be at home, school, or in the workplace” (p. 89). Gender inequality is socially constructed meaning people respond to changing behaviors in society. Cecilia L. Ridgeway (1997) researches that gender inequality is in fact socially constructed and she states “a part of that is learning how to display masculinity or femininity, which is seen or learned. For example, stereotypically, men are more focused with physical strength while woman are more focused on how they present themselves as viewing objects” (p. 225). Cartoon Network, a popular television network for children plays various cartoons such as The Flintstones, Dexter’s Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Thundercats, and more. Although all of these cartoons are hilarious because of the characters and the dialect...
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...Income inequality Name Date Abstract In any given population, there is a difference between what people within the population earn. The uneven distribution of income in any given population is income inequality. In order for there to be income, there has to be several sources of income. These sources of income may be combinational or independent per person receiving the income. Income may result from wages, rent, bank account interests, salaries or even profits made in business transactions ( Stiglitz, 2012). In his hypothesis, Karl Marx foresaw income inequality in a capitalistic as a major problem that would lead to an economic evolution. The main reason he foresaw an evolution was due to the recurrent nature of income inequality. In an income inequality situation, the richer keep getting richer due to a better income, while the poor keep getting poorer. The gap between the top earners and the low-income earners keeps widening in an income inequality situation. In America, almost 95% of the national wealth is under 5% ownership; this situation leaves 95% of the population to scrounge for the limited 5% wealth (DeNavas et. Al, 2005). Introduction In order to understand the complexities of economic inequality, the best specimen to use for the study is a family. In the study, the family’s income is under analysis, and then the family members ranked from the lowest income earner to the highest income earner. After the ranking, the incomes aid in establishing a Lorenz...
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...Jamikhan Wilson Dr. Stacy Downing Freshman Colloquium 27 February 2013 The Dangerous Consequences of Growing Inequality In today’s society the pressure of living an American dream has strained society. According to the article, The Dangerous Consequence of Growing Inequality, the author states one powerful consequence of growing inequality is erosion in the amount of free time families have. Families now have to work longer hours to make up for falling wages. Falling wages in the 1970s and 1980s were masked by the entry of a second wage earner in many households into the workforce. At the same time, temporarily and part time workers generally do not have paid vacations, and their numbers in the workforce are growing. Though advancements have been made in the work environment, many are working harder to earn the same wages to try to keep up with the changing economy. While unemployment and debt are increasing, there has been a decline with health insurance, diminishing retirement security, and the ability to earn a proper education. The U.S gap of inequality is continuously increasing with the changing economy. The article also states that, “Families continue to make up for falling wages in order to maintain a certain standard of living is by going deeper into debt.” Approximately sixty percent of all American households carry credit card balances, because they are unable to pay their full month bill. The article says that in 2004 the credit card industry claimed that...
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