1. Which statistic on wealth inequality in the US (discussed on p. 29) made the biggest impression on you? Explain why? I think the statistic that made the biggest impression on me was the fact that 90 percent of American families have little or no net assets. This surprised me the most because I had thought that a majority of people who are considered “middle class” would’ve ended up owning at least some net assets, which would’ve made that number much smaller (I was thinking about maybe 75-80 percent). The fact that 9/10 families living in America, which includes middle class families, owns little to no net assets is staggering to me. 

2. What could be some of the implications of living in a society that has such huge wealth inequalities? Do you see this dynamic getting played out in everyday life in our society? How so? Example? Some of the implications of living in a society that has such huge wealth inequalities are there being thousands of people going around the streets who are ill-fed and ill-housed, begging for spare change here and there from anyone that is generating income, while the wealthy continues to try to live lavishly by continuing their companies and buying new cars. Another implication would be thousands of people trying to look for work in order to sustain themselves while the rich end gaining a lot of money from the labor that the working class needs to provide in order to sustain themselves. I do think that I see these dynamics playing out in everyday life in our society due to just how large the population of the United States is and how big the inequality differences are. An example of this that I could think of would how many people who are looking for jobs are willing to work for Mcdonalds, which is typically considered to not be an ideal job choice due to the wage that you get paid, but because people need jobs in order to sustain themselves, many people are taking jobs at Mcdonalds in order to get through their expenses and the surplus value that the workers end up generating just ends up making the McDonalds’ company that much richer.