- Which statistic on wealth inequality in the US (discussed on p. 29) made the biggest impression on you? Explain why?
90% of American families have little or no assets. Most people die in the. Class to which they are born. This made the biggest impression on me because in the social media age we live in, where everything is done for likes or views, people don’t believe they’re really poor if they have materialistic items that cost too much in their possession. Or they lack the knowledge or education to understand where they fall on the food chain.
- 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 implications of living in a society that has huge wealth inequalities are social stratification, huge wealth gaps mean the wealthy get better access to health care, education, and housing, while working and poor people struggle to stay alive. Also, when a small number of people or corporations own the majority of the wealth, they can use that power to sway political decisions. One last thing is that wealth can cause social conflicts between men, women, race, gender, etc.
I do see these dynamics playing out in everyday life, one of the main ones being health care. It’s hard for people to get regular dental check-ups, physicals, and emergency rooms are overcrowded, understaffed, but if you’re part of the wealthy, then you’re able to go to a private hospital with top doctors with top education. Education is another big example private school and public school educations are two completely different things when you’re wealthy there’s such thing as legacy admissions, or if your parents know someone that knows someone, they can get you into an Ivy League college for free or way less than what someone who was working class or poor would have to pay. It’s almost like when you’re poor, you work twice as hard and pay twice as much and get less than what you’re worth or nothing at all.
