Income Inequality
What is income inequality? According to McConnell and Brue, authors of Microeconomics the 14th edition, income inequality is "the unequal distribution of an economy's total income among persons or families." They also point out that some of the causes of income inequality are "differences in ability, education and training, discrimination, tastes, and risks." As a whole we saw these factors very useful in explaining why it exists, but the problem with these is that they are mostly abstract. It is almost impossible to measure someone's tastes and preferences, but it is easy to measure the level of education and the degree of discrimination. Before researching this project we came up with factors that we perceived to be major factors causing income inequality. These factors consist of racism and sexism, free trade and foreign trade, welfare, and taxes. We believed that these factors are the main causes of income inequality. Racism and sexism are presented in the economy in the form of lower wages for equal work. The belief that NAFTA moved jobs north or south of the border. That taxes cause more income inequality than they balance out. Welfare is also believed to be a factor because it may offer better benefits to thos
Due to increased trade Washington has had increased employment from the jobs that trade has created and supported. Women represented by unions earn almost 84% as much as unionized men. Two examples of this are property and income taxes. Across the nation minorities attain lower levels of education than their white counterparts. This brings us to the last concept that our group felt was a factor of income inequality. " This data illustrates just how wrong the populace was. We originally believed that the programs' benefits offered more of a return than working offered the beneficiaries. We took an in depth view of these ideas and formed a hypothesis of what causes income inequality, Of the factors that our group pointed out in the above section we saw welfare as being one of the leading causes of income inequality. An average loss of more than $4,000 each week for working women's families each year because of unequal pay, even after accounting for differences in education, age, location, and the number of hours worked. " This in theory has increased the unemployment of teenagers and young adults by about 3 for each group over the last five years. As the percentage of women in an occupation rises, wages tend to fall. Out of all 50 states, all but four states reduced income inequality between high and low income families. This only causes the poor to become poorer and the rich to become richer. Many of the people that are getting off of TANF are not getting benefits or paid leave from their employers.
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