Inequality in the Land of Opportunity
Some things are just too good to be true… Media plays America off as a land where everyone is equal and has the same opportunities, but this is not the truth. Debunking this stereotype by looking at statistical evidence of income inequality, this post is a response to the prep work assigned by income inequality educator, Priscilla Villa.
Despite the claims on America being a land of equal opportunity for all, the reality seems to be very far from the case. Statistics have shown a drop in wages for jobs from the 1900’s to now. Most jobs have seen this drop whether it be a couple thousand or more. This is partly due to the fact that the dollar then was worth more than the dollar now. However, looking past even the depreciated value of the dollar and digging deeper, there seems to be a difference between incomes based on gender and race. Looking further into the topic, I watched two videos (one was a TED Talk given by Ben Hecht on how the opportunities in America can be restored and one that is a trailer of the documentary, Inequality for All) and read an article explaining the decline in opportunities presented within America to prepare for the lesson. It was interesting to see the statistics and major differences in income and opportunity of then compared to now.
Here are some statistics as referenced from the article, “Why the U.S. is No Longer the Land of Opportunity” by Stephen Gandel:
A recent study from the Pew Charitable Trust found that Americans born in the a family that was one of the bottom fifth in terms of wealth, only had a 17% chance of making into the top two-fifths as an adult.
But the causes of inequality and any resulting decrease in social mobility are also very much about two megatrends that have been reshaping the global economy since the 1970s: the effects of technology and the rise of the emerging markets. Some 2 billion people have joined the global workforce since the 1970s. According to Goldman Sachs, the majority of them are middle class by global standards and can do many of the jobs that were once done by American workers, at lower labor costs. Goldman estimates that 70 million join that group every year.
It now appears, as Foroohar points out, that a number of recent studies have shown that it is now easier to move up the income ladder in Europe than it is in America.
In addition to viewing and reading these sources provided in the prep work blog post, I tweeted an interesting fact that came up as I was doing the assignment. This interesting fact came up during the TED Talk. I found it interesting that the presenter showed statistics and scaling how much each racial/gender demographic would get for every dollar that a Caucasian person would get in income. The scale blew my mind to understand how different the income was for each group on such a small scale.
