Proposal and Annotated Bibliography: The American Dream and Inequality

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The American Dream and Inequality
Proposal and Annotated Bibliography
There has been controversy on the relationship between the American Dream and inequality in the U.S. with both liberal and conservative having opposing views on the relevance of impact of income inequality. These disagreements emanate from differences in opinions about whether opportunities are available to all. The notion that hard work and ambition are crucial to achieving the American Dream supports the view that America is the land of opportunities. However, in light of the growing inequalities and income stagnation since the 1970’s the American Dream is being undermined more than ever before. Low social mobility in the U.S. compared to other developed countries also suggests that high inequality may derail the peoples’ effort to achieve the American Dream.
The purpose of this essay is to examine how the growing inequality derails the American Dream. Studies show that income inequality may be detrimental to social mobility especially when inequality a tipping point that there is reduced growth (Partridge & Weinstein 389). Other studies highlight that the growing inequalities is simply a manifestation of higher income paid to those with higher education and the entrepreneurs. While this is correct the income stagnation among the middle class and working class suggest that a majority of the Americans have been worse off.
The essay will rely on the identified sources to support the idea that inequality is detrimental to the American Dream. This will include statistics where possible, including a focus on changes in American economy since the 1970’s including income stagnation, the loss of manufacturing jobs as well as growing inequality. This will strengthen the argument that there is a need to address inequality and make it easier for the low class and middle class to improve their economic well-being.
Annotated Bibliography
Leonhardt, David. 'Inequality Has Been Going On Forever ... But That Doesn’T Mean It’S Inevitable'. Nytimes.com. N.p., 2014.
The authors rightly point out that inequality between the poor and the wealthy has increase cover time and begin with the example of China, where the bottom 10% earn more than 9 times than the bottom 10%. One of the reasons for the growing income inequality is that there is a higher premium for higher education, with highly educated people commanding higher wages. As such, investing in human capital is associated with greater disparity in earnings. This implies that earning inequality may be a result of higher productivity, but the people from broken homes have lower chances of getting to college. Additionally, lack of cognitive and non cognitive skills may pose a challenge to accessing education. The authors further argue that to solve the problem of rising income inequality then there ought to be more emphasis on raising the youths, and rewarding their returns on human capital by not raising on income taxes and focusing more on capital taxes.
King, Brandon. The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on hold. 2009. Web.
In the case, King argues that the American Dream is very much alive, but only the people’s ideas and meaning of the concept have changed. King conceptualizes the American Dream as the ability to secure an honest way of life while saving for the future. King attempts to challenge the idea that the economy differences between the top earning and low earning classes is enough a reason for people to flourish. To King , the importance of the social class differences are over played, and simply demonstrate that the rich have been able to rely on what they have to achieve what they want. King’s rhetorical strategy is to rely on statistics, quoting a New York article and survey results on American Dream, while also pointing out changes to the economic system. As such, the definition of the American Dream has changed from rags to rich story or owning house in a suburb to what people can achieve, while providing money to the rich would trickle down to the other classes since there would be job creations.
Partridge, Mark D., and Amanda L. Weinstein. "Rising inequality in an era of austerity: The case of the US." European Planning Studies 21.3 (2013): 388-410.
Since the global downturn of 2008/2009, one of the biggest challenges has been job creation, with job growth rate slow since then. To further highlight the growing inequality in the U.S. is that incomes have stagnated since the 1970’s, while inequality has risen. There are diverse reasons for the growing inequality, with one school of thought arguing it is a result of lagging job growth and income. The major trend in inequality is that income gains since the economic recovery in 2010 has mainly gone to the 1%. Another angle to inequality is that it encourages people to improve their skills by attaining education, and the best are rewarded while those not performing are left behind. The main concern with inequality is that it may reach a tipping point where it causes instability, and there are both good and bad angles to inequality. The authors also promote political reforms as a solution since this would equalize political influence.
Berliner, David C. "Inequality, Poverty, and the Socialization of America's Youth for the Responsibilities of Citizenship." Theory into Practice 52.3 (2013): 203-209.
Belriner argues that poverty and inequality pose a challenge to educators since the youth from impoverished communities not get to learn about citizenship. the educators recognize the importance of citizenship to all Americans, but the poor youth do not get a chance to participate responsibilities as citizens of the U.S. poverty is linked with worsening education ,social and health problems, making it harder for the poor youth to participate meaningfully in the society. There is a risk of social ills in impoverished communities including drugs, but also higher rates of crime, teenage pregnancies, mental health problems and increased school drop outs. This creates a domino effect where the youth fail to take up activities of citizenship, while they have inadequate skills to compete in the job market. The author proposes that reforming schools with aim of increasing student participation in democracy would succeed when poverty and inequality are addressed.
Introduction
The belief in the American dream is that everyone has an opportunity to improve their economic well-being since they are opportunities, with those who work hard. This concept defines what Americans believe that everyone can make it regardless of their circumstances, and has been one of the reasons as to why the country attracts many immigrants. The flipside to the American economic model is that it fosters inequality. This has mostly been associated with increasing returns to capital and talent among the rich. Nonetheless, there is concern that the growing inequalities increase monopolies power and this limits the extent to which people can achieve the American Dream. This paper highlights the need to address inequality, which makes it harder to achieve the America Dream.
America Dream and income inequality
According to Krugman (586), there is a need to look more into the impact of inequality on the economy since it affects the standards of living. The observation that the bulk of growth has mostly benefited a small minority of rich highlights the need to assess whether the other people have really enjoyed this growth. Access to capital and means of production makes it easier for people to improve their economic situation. The lack of economic progress among the working and middle-class is concern since the incomes have stagnated while the living costs have risen over time. The link between economic inequality and social inequality cannot be ignored with the middle class finding it harder to afford housing (Krugman 589).
There is a positive relationship between education attainment and rising incomes in American, since as one attains more skills the employers place a higher premium on these skills. Easier access to education as a way to improve the economic well-being of Americans is that. For instance, in the mid to late 20th century more Americans graduated from high schools when it was made universal and the net effect was there were income gains for both the...