Our Opinions!

Abbey:
I think that we really need to work at fixing the income gap. People are really suffering! But it is going to take everyone chipping in to fix it, it will take time but i believe we can do it! Its important to have a middle class.

Ally:
I personally believe that we need to figure out how to help. Most of us come from not much money. There has to be a way to decrease the gap. At least enough so its not so devistating that it can't then comepletely wipe out our middle class.

Briauna:
We need to help figure out how to close up this income gap. I think the more well off people can afford to let go some of the money they make. They make enough to where they probably wouldn't notice a small portion of it going to help out some lower class citizens. Having that middle class is very important to our economy.

Kristyn:
I think that it is sad that the middle classs is disappearing. The middle class has defined American society since the 1950's. The middle class has influenced our lives, values, and our entertainment. So, to see it disappearing is really upsetting. There should be a bigger spectrum of wages.

Brianna:
I think that there should be a solution to the income gap. The gap should be minimized. We are losing the middle class because of this gap. I think that if there are little things we can do to fix this gap, then they should be put into effect. 

Tiya:
I think that if we look at all of the reason as of why there's an income gap then maybe we together as a whole could come up with a plan that could resolve this problem. I mean but the way today's people are they're stingy, so they don't care what anyone else makes its just about them.

Income Inequalities? Why is this raising?

If you think about the economy you think about the money involved and the debt, and wonder how much debt there is, and why is there so much. Then you think about where is all the money being spent and if not being spent, where is that money, and a number of other questions some of which lead to other questions, among other questions, and there are WAYYYY to many questions we could get into about it, and some are WAYYYY too sophisticated to get into. So, we’ll start with, WHY is there an income inequality.

Well, to be quite blunt with you there are many reason as of why there is an income inequality. But I mean I could give you a start and a number of answers. In the National Bureau of Economic Reasearch they state that "In Controversies about the Rise of American Inequality: A Survey (NBER Working Paper No. 13982), authors Robert J. Gordon and Ian Dew-Becker provide a comprehensive survey of seven aspects of seven aspects of rising inequality are usually discussed separately: changes in labor's share of income; inequality at the bottom of the income distribution, including labor mobility; skill-biased technical change; inequality among high income groups; consumption inequality;geographical inequality; and international differences in income distribution, particularly at the top." So this means that there are 7 basic reasons as of why there is an inequality income and why it's rising.

I’m now going to discuss some of the reason as of why its raising.

One of which is "Changes/Decline in labor's share of income." The change was caused by a number of factors. Some of which were the tech used to create goods and services, increased globalization, developments in labor market institutions.

And another would be “inequality at the bottom of the income distribution”. There’s a lot of people at the bottom who some are making more than others and not getting what they are deserving. Which is unfair but hey, it’s Society.

Income Gap continues to grow!

Even though the United States is the richest country in the world, we suffer from one of the highest levels of income inequality in the world. Income inequality is now at its highest point since the Great Depression as the income gap grows between the rich and the poor. Between 2008-2012 the poorest fifth of households had an average income of $20,510 compared to the top fifth income of $164,490. Globalization, technological advancements, fewer unions, rising health insurance costs, increased competition from low-skilled immigrants, and a declining education system have caused wages to decrease for a majority of Americans.
If the federal minimum wage was raised there would be an immediate solution to the income inequality.




http://ivn.us/2012/11/24/nationwide-studies-show-the-income-gap-continues-to-grow/

How is income gap measured?

How is income gap measured?

The income gap is, measured by the amount of money made by a group as compared to another group in society. The gap comes from the difference in money between the social classes. Now the question is, is this an effective way of measuring the gap? For the most part the answer to this question is yes. It’s pretty dependable, as long as numerous salaries are pulled and the math is done right. However you could disagree, comment saying what your Opinion is of the way the income gap is measured or how it should be measured.

Here is a picture to help demonstrate this process:



This picture also depics the way the income gap has decreased and then grow since the Great Depression.

Income gap between the States

    There is a huge income gay between the rich and poor. What's the gap like between the states? Which States have a high gap? A low gap? What factors affect the gap? Well, the most populous states have some of the widest gaps. A higher population leads to a better chance of poor rural areas and wealthy suburbs surrounding cities. Education also contributes to which states have the highest income gap. Less educated states (California, Texas and Mississippi) have a higher income gap. The list doesn't lie.
    New York has the highest income gap, with 14.1 percent of the population living below the poverty line. Conneticut, a state with the reputation of being wealthy, is number two on the list. Their median income is the 4th highest, however, and 10.3% of the entire state makes $200,000 a year. Louisiana is lucky number three, with a huge rate of the population living below the poverty line at a staggering 17.7%. Massachusetts is 4th and the sunshine state of Florida is number 5. 12.4% of Floridians recieve food stamps. DC, while not a state, ironically has the highest income gap with a gini coefficient of .532, which is a .033 increase from the .499 of New York. Most of the other states vary from .013 to .001, just to put that in perspective.The state with the smallest income gap? Utah.


http://www.nbcnews.com/business/states-widest-gap-between-rich-poor-815945

This graph shows us what kind of money everyone actually makes, what people think they make, and what we say it should be. Do you agree with what we think it should be?

This is showing us how equality for income is spread throughout the US. Why do you think some places are more equal than others?

infographics

Is income inequality preventable? Should we prevent it?

Is Income Equality preventable?
At a conference in Chicago, an economist said that Income Equality can not be helped. It is a result of "skill premium" and corporations can not prevent this. Income Equality is permanent  Income Equality is often presented as the percentage of income to the percent of population. The rich stay rich, and the poor stay poor.
Should we prevent it?
We should prevent it but it is permanent. We are losing the middle class because of this. There is a growing gap in equality. People think that the wide spread between the "rich" and the "poor" is the primary problem for our economy. We could prevent an income gap by paying men and women the same wages. We can also prevent it by taxes, strengthening unions, and strengthening social safety nets.

Is income inequality noticable in the US?

The United States has the highest income inequality out of all the English speaking countries. From 1992-2007 the top 400 earners had an increase in their incomes by 392%. By 2007 the top 1% of America is in possession of 24% of our income. It wasn’t always like that though; from 1937-1947 there was a period call The Great Compression. This made the wages of the lower and middle classes go up, and the upper class wages go down. Since then, it is obvious that we headed in the exact opposite direction. It seems to be that the upper class doesn’t really know how bad the lower classes have gotten.

 

This graph shows the income increases in each percentile in America from 1979-2007. It is adjusted for inflation. What do you all think about this? Do you think it’s fair for the richest people to keep making all that money while the rest of us barely ever get raises?

What is the income gap?

:
"What is the income gap?"

The income gap is the difference between social classes. This gap has grown so much that there's almost no middle class in America. Due to this there have been many outbreaks in recent year to try and reach a medium. One example is "occupy wall street". We can't seem to find that happy medium. Below is a demographic depicting the drastic change in the gap since 1967:

Afterf\ looking at the stats, what are your thoughts about the income gap?

Some interesting graphs on inequality

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph

Status of Income Inequality Around the World Compared to the United States.

The United states is number four on the top Top Ten Worst Income Inequality. The Countries are in this order:

1. Chile
2. Mexico
3. Turkey
4. United States
5. Isreal
6. Portugal
7. United Kingdom
8. Italy
9. Austalia
10. New Zealand

 As you can see from the picture the U.S is in the top four for the highest income inequality. Compared to Chile, Mexico and Turkey we are doing better but there are a lot more countries better off than us!





What do you think? Does this seem like something that is accurate? Does this concern you?

Why does income inequality occur?

Why does income inequality occur?

     Income inequality is the difference in wages between the rich and the poor. This occurs for many reasons, the most obvious reason is the differences in wages and how those wages are determined. Different workers recieve different wages, based on their skills and what the job requires. More education results in higher wages, usually. As more people recieve an higher education, however, the demand for more skilled workers decreases, and with a higher supply of these workers, the price needed to pay the skilled workers decreases. Supply and demand of workers is one major reason behind income inequality.
    Another reason for income inequality are taxes. Higher income individuals are often taxed less than the middle-class. Corporations and people with investments are not taxed at the rates that the middle class are, so the rich can keep more of their income, as opposed to the middle-class who are subjected to Medicare, Social Security, and other federal taxes. Corporations and higher income individuals get more tax breaks.