Comp 105 Blog

During the process of me writing my essay, I took some time to reflect on the previous writing assignments the blog posts we were assigned to do. As I was writing the essay, I thought about the blog posts, such as the ones that focused on the MLK, Nelson Mandela and  Amazing Grace  readings and connected those to my topic of income inequality and other things like the disadvantages of a class-based society and the uneven distribution of wealth, and society in general and each person’s role in it. I learned through my own writing, reading more about my topic and reflecting on my own experiences with my main topic of my paper that the world’s issues are dynamic in some ways, but quite static in others. For example, in the age of the internet, we can access information and news across the entire world, but still many of these issues do not see the light of day by the public eye, while small groups of people may see some problems that societies are facing, whether it be in our country or s

Works Cited   Godlewski, Nina. “Amazon Employees Have Resorted to Urinating in Trash Cans in Some Warehouses.”  Newsweek , 13 Sept. 2018,  www.newsweek.com/amazon-drivers-warehouse-conditions-workers-complains-jeff-bezos-bernie-1118849   “Jeff Bezos.”  Forbes , Forbes Magazine,  www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/#7ad129951b23 .   Kozol, Jonathan.  Amazing Grace: T he  Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation . Broadway Paperbacks, an Imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a Division of Random House, Inc., 2012.   Linden, Michael. “The Federal Tax Code and Income Inequality.”  Center for American Progress ,  www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2012/04/19/11404/the-federal-tax-code-and-income-inequality/ .   Sanchez, Ray. “Occupy Wall Street: 5 Years Later.”  CNN , Cable News Network, 16 Sept. 2016,  www.cnn.com/2016/09/16/us/occupy-wall-street-protest-movements/index.html .   “The Hunger and Obesity Paradox.”  The Nutrition Source , 13 Apr.

The issues of income inequality and the uneven distribution of wealth has become an increasingly relevant discussion point for our society in recent years. While this division between the top 1  percent  of income earners and the 99  percent  or the lower -  and middle - class of income owners has been a relevant topic for a while now, this recent surge of public outcry has put income inequality in a bigger spotlight than in the past, putting the issue of class division, work conditions, living conditions and many more in the focus of today’s political, social and economic conversation. Society today will need to continue to represent and address topics surrounding income inequality and the distribution of wealth to improve the age of tomorrow. 

While the standard-of-living of people with lower incomes is obviously not as good as people with higher incomes, the government steps in to help anyone whose living and money situation is in a disastrous condition. One of the primary methods that the government helps the impoverished is with food stamps, although as much help as they provide, there can be an argument made that it can lead to obesity, presented through the Hunger - Obesity Paradox, which theorizes that “federal food assistance programs intended to improve diets among the food insecure families... may actually be linked with increased risk of overweight (“The Hunger and Obesity Paradox”)”. In my personal logic, this could be theorized due to healthier food being more expensive and harder to come by, for example salads, fruits and other vegetables being at a higher price than food considered unhealthier to eat daily such as chips, cookies and other snack foods which can be bought almost anywhere conveniently and at a com

For my final project, I decided to take what I learned from this course, applied some of my own personal experiences and brought it all together to create my paper around the central idea of income inequality and the distribution of wealth in our country. The purpose of my essay is to gather all the information I knew about my topic and relay it to say what exactly I think about income inequality and how it has been negatively effecting our society for the majority of the last century. My audience for my essay ranges for anyone who would like my personal take on the issues I present to all of my peers. Along with my blog posts previously submitted, I hope my essay gives context on my stance of important issues from decades past up to today. 

The numerous effects of income inequality are long-standing and there seems to be little to no improvement from decades past, and evidence and facts seem to point out that the distribution of wealth has only gotten less favorable over time. However, groups of protesters have been vocal against this economic and social injustice that is taking part in our country, most prominently in the last 10 years. In the article “Occupy Wall Street: 5 Years Later”, Ray Sanchez recalls the events that took place in the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York. A significant part of the movement was the conflict between the 99 percent majority of income earners and the top 1 percent of income owners, which caught on the catchphrase of “We are the 99% ” ,  plastering the phrase on poster boards everywhere and catapulting it into national recognition and the topic of many political, economic and social argument (Sanchez). Years later after the initial protests, there are no similar movements along

While income inequality has a negative effect on the economy and society on a wide scale, we often seem to overlook the effect it has on a small and local scale. Throughout the history of the United States, the gap of wealth distribution between the top 10 percent, especially the top 1 percent  and the rest  of  the  income earners has increased dramatically, most significantly since the mid- 20 th  century. Seemingly since the wages have gone increasingly higher for the 1 percent of wealth owners, the middle and lower classes earnings have been stagnant in comparison for the last 50 or so years .  When someone thinks of taxes, they usually think that the rich get taxed more often than everyone else, although that is not  always   the truth, as the rich repeatedly receive tax breaks and cuts while the rest of the population do not receive much relief from taxes by the government, “from 19 79 to 2007 there were a number of major tax changes, but the cumulative effect was to render the f

 The effects of  income inequality  are felt by everyone to varying degrees. For instance, if you ask a random person how they feel about the economy, government, politics and other issues, their viewpoint and stance usually will follow a guideline based on their individual and household income.  Many think if  a person who makes 20,000 dollars yearly is asked about their feelings and opinions on the economy, there is a probable chance that their answer will be less positive than if you ask the same question to someone who earns 200,000 dollars a year, whether it be that their experience with finances and the economy may be different or their lives in general differ so much. In  Amazing Grace  by Jonathan Kozol, he tells the reader of his experiences talking to the people of South Bronx, who can be considered the poorest of the poor in our country. While many may not know of the extreme poverty of South Bronx, such as myself before I read  Amazing Grace , any story selected from the bo

One of the major reasons for the uneven share of wealth is, in most people’s eyes, big corporations and the government. For most lower- and middle-income families, they rely on  the  wages  that   are  earn ed  from working at corporations and businesses that  may be  pay ing  the ir employees  poorly. On the other hand, the owners and upper management of the corporations that have their employees working for minimum wage or near minimum wage pay to live off make an outrageous amount of money in comparison. The result of this is an outcry from most people who are in the lower- and middle-class and want change to happen so their standard of living can improve through the call of higher wages. A strong example of this is the company, Amazon, whose owner, Jeff Bezos, is the richest man in the world with “a net worth surpassing $150 billion (“Jeff Bezos”)”. Amazon, the undisputed largest internet commerce company of today, has had rumors and claims made that they are overworking their empl

       In our society, the role a person plays in their community and how they contribute as a citizen is by no surprise important. In my personal belief, both community and citizenship go together, as participating in your community and being a righteous citizen has a positive effect. Having a voice in your community and finding other like-minded people who believe in similar issues which need to be addressed will bring attention to the public on said issues. One recent issue that has seen a surge of public outcry for the last decade has been the separation of people based on income , or income inequality . The division of wealth classes has troubled the common people of societies for as long as written history can recall and still across the world, the distribution of wealth drastically favors the top 1 percent richest in the world, which owns more than half of the world’s wealth. In today’s age, the issues of skewed wealth distribution towards the upper-class while the lower and mid