1. The statistic about wealth inequality in the US that made the biggest impression on me was that the top 1 percent own between 40 and 50 percent of the nation’s total wealth. This statistic surprised me because the richest people of this nation have more power over us than I thought. It is crazy to think about because we barely hear about who the top 1 percent is since they’re usually very private. But yet they control so many factors of our lives, entire workforces can be laid off from their job if these people say so and that seems like too much power for an individual. This immense inequality shows how capitalisms is used to exploit lower classes for profit and the benefit of the higher classes. It is also known that is it harder for us today to move out of our social class compared to our previous generation.
  2. Some implications of living in a society that has huge wealth inequalities is access to healthcare. People without money may not be able to afford the surgeries or medicine they need but yet rich people are some of the healthiest people in this country. Another implication of this is labor itself, lets say a big corporations buys out a company and merges, the big corporation may reduce its workforce as a financial strategy. This then causes thousands of people to lose their jobs, looking for work else where, yet the big corporation eventually flips a profit for making these peoples lives harder. I do not see this dynamic being played out in our society because we live in a capitalist society, where we are exploited for our labor for the sake of profit.

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