Economic Inequalities Essay

Economic Inequalities: Deep-ceded Problems in America New York is a city that is synonymous with America to many people and societies around the world. New York city is a land of freedom and opportunity, symbolized by Lady Liberty in New York harbor. This is a place that does not discriminate based on background, but allows people to chart their own destinies. Or does it? The New York of the 1960s or even the 1990s does not exist anymore.

Economic inequality has run rampant in New York as it has in many metropolitan cities. Bill Moyers, economist reported that “Among our largest, richest 20 metro areas, less than 50 percent of the homes are affordable.’ In New York City, he said, ‘Inequality in housing has reached Dickensian dimensions’” (Winship).  This paper will explore how the economic inequality is undermining the very democratic principles that shaped this country.

When there’s too much economic inequality, opportunity is not available to all and democracy suffers and the nation as a whole is weakened.  Part of the origins of economic inequality is that there are too many systems in place which function only to protect the rich. Few of us can forget the economic crisis of 2008. America behaved in a manner that demonstrated part of a pattern: the government bailed out the corrupt institutions.

This is just another aspect of a greater pattern: in America, the rich remain a protected class. As Reich points out, there are copious examples from white collar America of CEOs running their companies into ruin, and then securing massive payoffs for themselves as the company declares bankruptcy. “In early 2012, The Wall Street Journal looked into the pay of executives at 21 of the largest companies that has recently gone through bankruptcy.

The median compensation of those CEOs was $8.7 million—not much less than the $9.1 million median compensation of all CEOs of big companies” (Reich, 11). Reich goes on to explain how the reason this happens is because these CEOs have usually packed the board of directors with friends who ensure that they receive a fat compensation. This is an example of an unregulated financial system.

When a financial system is characterized by such marked unfairness that favors a particular class, such as the super wealthy, then this type of corruption is bound to run rampant.  Part of the economic inequality that is occurring today revolves around increased housing costs and a minimum wage that is just standard. All over America, though particularly in metropolitan areas, housing costs continue to rise and in many places, the minimum wage isn’t also rising to meet it.

Barbra Ehrenreich, author of the book Nickel and Dimed, documents this struggle to survive very acutely in her book. During her experiment, the money she makes on her shift is barely enough to live on: she’s earning $2.43 an hour plus tips. She rents out a cabin in the back of someone’s swampy backyard. She finds that many of her co-workers are struggling to find affordable housing as well: they share rooms in flophouses, trailers, hotel rooms.

Few people seem at peace with their living situations and rightly so: their housing is often cramped and unaffordable. Hence, one can conclude that a major manifestation of economic inequality revolves around having access to housing that one can afford. A lack of affordable housing means that every other area of one’s existence is threatened and there’s an inability to thrive.  Gregory Mantsios discusses the economic inequality as it manifests through the economic class structure in America.

America has long attempted to distinguish itself from its class-focused land of origin—England. Americans are happy to distinguish themselves via their regions of the nation that they are from, via their ethnic differences or even via their race. There’s more of a reluctance to distinguish oneself via their economic class. However, as Manstios is able to illustrate quite clearly, these hesitations do not mean that we exist in a classless society.

Actually, just the opposite: “Approximately 144,000 Americans or 0.1 percent of the adult working population, earn more than $1 million annually, with many of these individuals earning over $10 million and some earning over $100 million annually. It would take the average American, earning $34,000 per year, more than 65 lifetimes to earn $100 million” (266). With economic inequality, wealth and abundance are alive with vigor in certain parts of the nation, however, the remaining sections of the population are often riddled with poverty and despair (266).

One could argue that a hallmark of a democratic society depends upon having a stable and widespread middle class. There will always be groups at different ends of the spectrum financially, but a big middle class acts a buffer between those groups. In America, as many economists have noted, the middle class is getting smaller and smaller. This has caused a sense of panic in many circles and understandably so.

However, what many are slowly beginning to realize is that with the shrinking middle class there is a shrinking level of democracy going in hand with it.  Part of the issue is that there aren’t more people demanding that the government take a stand and engage in real change. Many people are merely focused on forging their own survival rather than holding accountable the very institutions that make their lives unbearable. Kendall details this phenomenon in her book Framing Class.

Kendall discusses how the media tends to try to mollify the divides between wealthy and poor. “Rather than providing a meaningful analysis of inequality and showing realistic portrayals of life in various social classes, the media either play class differences for laughs or sweep the issue of class under the rug so that important distinctions are rendered invisible” (210). Economic disparities aren’t something to be trivialized or dismissed, as Kendall notes.

This puts the media in a weird enabling position that means they are doing their part to partake in a social construction of reality where the affluent are rewarded and the poor are condemned to a non-existence.  In conclusion, economic inequality is at the root of so many of America’s problems.

One could argue that this is one of the main reasons that Trump got elected: he continually promised struggling Americans who felt forgotten that he was going to fix the economy and make life more bearable for them. Many structures in place in America do little to rectify the unfairness present or.