Critical Issue: Is America Becoming More Unequal? Essay Example

Galbraith of the Free Press says that “American citizens have grown, and now it is wider than at any other time since the Great Depression. It is so wide that it has come, once again, to threaten the social solidarity and stability of the country.

It has come to undermine our sense of ourselves as a nation of equals. In this way, rising inequality presents a stark challenge to American national life. ” Another issue with the growing inequality is through politics. It continues with the fact that we are not a free democracy. It’s based upon the working middle class and we are constantly convinced that our society grows closer to equality and a better life for all citizens. But at the same time people without capitol and control have limited power over the government which are representing the.

In result of this prices are rising and the working middle class are getting in more and deeper debt, and can’t afford healthcare. When the governments keep telling us everything is ok and the economy is getting better. We all know that’s a lie. Some people say different from the majority and think that America’s growing economic inequality benefits the country as a whole. Elizabeth Gudrais a writer in Harvard Magazine suggests that inequality, “serves to motivate,” and that inequality may act on the human psyche to elicit hard work and high achievement, but it also may make us more individualistic.

Edward Greenberg &Benjamin Page, authors of The Struggle for Democracy say differently. They say that “defenders of the American society and economy think that through the inequality in America, “everyone is better off

but incomes rise faster for those on the top than those on the bottom. ” On The Issues say’s that Bill Clinton left us on the brink of recession meaning he was the one to start this whole mess when he left office in 2001. Bill Clinton was our 42nd president and served as president for two terms he was impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of perjury.

When Clinton was elected president in 1993 he increased taxes which in short term revenues to the government, and served as an anchor to stop economic growth. In 1994 this thing called the Republican Revolution which was the Republican Party taking over proved to counterbalanced Clinton’s attempt to expand the government. They stopped his mission of taking over the healthcare system, and forced him to sign a welfare reform. This major action finally balanced out the federal budget for the first time in decades.

Unfortunately it didn’t last that long. In the year 1995 Clinton said he wanted to balance out the budget in 10 years because of the pain the government inflicted on the elderly, students, and economy. He promised to cut taxes on the middle class, so he drew sharp distinctions between is intensions and decisions and those of the GOP. His main goal was to cut Medicare by reducing hospital bills. Bill Clinton was the first president to use fiscal discipline to balance a budget. The budget deficit that came from George Bush sr. was still around. Bill felt a commitment to the kind of fiscal politics out of which Republican presidents had made rhetorical for two generations, while presidents

from both parties allowed debt to pile up. “ In Rep. John Kasich book Stand for Something: the Battle for America's Soul, he said that also in 1995 “Clinton wanted to phony up the numbers on this first go-round, so we shut down the government. Today we look back and suggest that shutting down the government under those circumstances was an irrational idea, but I look back and think it was one of the greatest moments of my career.

Why, because typically, politicians make their decisions based on votes. And yet in at least this one instance politician set aside these concerns and stood up for what was right, for our children, our shared future, and for America. For this one battle, for the time being, we forgot about politics and focused on good government, and if we had to take a beating for it then so be it. And as a direct result of that government shutdown, we wrote a bill that provided for the first balanced budget in nearly forty years and allowed us to pay down the largest chunk of our staggering national debt in the history of this country. With that being said we was in over $400 billion in deficit for this year and all the years to come. The major question was how we are going to pay all of this back. One way was to take the Social Security surplus, but it wasn’t enough, so we had to borrow. Our government borrowed money from the Chinese and Japanese governments. For the most part things went downhill from there and even more so when George Bush jr. came

in. Now in the present time where Barack Obama is president things still have been easy.

Former presidents messed up so bad that it seems like forever until we end this madness. President Barack Obama is our 44th president and our first African American president of all time. He was elected president in 2008, and to me has been doing pretty well. His first term is almost up and most would say that he hasn’t made any progress, but with all of the things he has dealt with there’s no way he came clean up this mess in just four years. I hope and pray that he is reelected, because I am a strong believer that he will turn this economy completely around.

Other than politics another major factor is healthcare. It seems as though people with bigger pay checks get the best of the best, and they really don’t need it as much as the hard worker do. Healthcare is also racist, and sexist meaning male workers receive better benefits than females do. The U. S. report says that “a number of disparities in the prevalence of certain diseases and conditions among racial and ethnic groups ... continue to exist. ” In African Americans the death rate for cancer is approximately 25 percent higher than for White Americans in 2001.

They are also seen in women like infant mortality and low birth weight. Infant mortality may have decreased among all races during the 1980–2000 time period, but the black an white gap in infant mortality increased. Not only do men receive better benefits white males get the top of the line.

Thanks to president Obama the issues on healthcare are better, but not the best. He signed the reform to make healthcare more affordable, hold insurers more accountable, expand coverage to all Americans, and really to make the healthcare system more suitable for the people.

My last issue on inequality is education. First off the United States is way behind in education compared to China and Japan. Not only are we behind, but white student receive better material, teachers, learning equipment, and schools. I feel as though if we as a country started teaching and giving our children necessary material at a young age then we won’t have these educational differences. That’s really the main reason that china is ahead of us, and they have better technology. I know they are coming out with new different technique to help out children, but I don’t think it’s enough.

Hopefully, we come out with bigger and better educational weapons to enhance our young minds of the next generation to come. Summary: The information I have gathered is from many different sources on the internet. All of my information is pretty much significant to the topic I choose. My main issue was basically about the economy and how its unequal is so many different ways. I talked about Clinton’s highs and lows while he was in office. How his decisions lead us into this mess. I didn’t really touch bases on how Bush made the situation worse, but we all know he did.

I went into detail on how Obama is actually making a change in the economy. It may not be as fast as everybody

wants him to but he is doing it. Perfection takes time, and I also think he should be reelected. I informed you on how the healthcare system is rigged so the white people more so males get better benefits than black and females. But Obama has put into action the healthcare reform and it’s supposed to be more suitable for America as a whole. My last issue talked about educational differences. If we teach our children the right material and younger age we would be better off.

Recommendations

Throughout this paper I have quoted many people, but I have had my opinion on each issue. As far as the topic a whole goes I hate the fact that we are unequal. Inequality is my major pet peeve. And it’s sad to say that it’s the major reason why we can’t get along. Who cares if you look, dress, act, and learn differently we should all come together as a people an fix the problem and not make it worse than what it is.

References

1. "Bill Clinton on Budget & Economy. " OnTheIssues. org - Candidates on the Issues. Web. 12 Sept. 011. <http://www. ontheissues. org>.
2. BOYD, CYNTHIA. "Education in U. S. and China: What's the Difference? " Web.
3. "Is America Becoming More Unequal? " Web.
4. "Unequal Treatment In Healthcare. " The National Academies Press. Web. 12 Sept. 2011. <http://www. nap. edu>.
5. "Unequal, Unfair, Ineffective and Inefficient Gender Inequity in Health: Why It Exists and How We Can Change It. " Web. 12 Sept. 2011. <http://www. who. int>.
6. Wikipedia, the Free
   

Encyclopedia. Web. 12 Sept. 2011. <http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Main_Page>.