{"id":10882,"date":"2025-05-25T11:49:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T15:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0507-spring-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/?p=10882"},"modified":"2025-05-25T11:49:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T15:49:57","slug":"5-3-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0507-spring-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/2025\/05\/25\/5-3-2\/","title":{"rendered":"5.3"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Which statistic on wealth inequality made the biggest impression on you? Why?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The most striking wealth inequality statistic revealed that the top 1% of Americans possess wealth exceeding the combined total of the bottom 90%. The discovery of this fact hit me because it reveals the actual extent of wealth concentration. The wealth distribution shows that most of the money exists in a small elite group while the majority of people possess minimal assets. Such a system raises doubts about its fairness and sustainability.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\" start=\"2\">\r\n<li>What are the implications of living in a society with such huge wealth inequalities?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The existence of such extreme wealth inequality in our society results in:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most people struggle to obtain basic necessities including housing healthcare and education.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social mobility drops\u2014people born poor are more likely to stay poor.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The wealthy gain political control because they can finance election campaigns and create policy changes and manipulate media outlets.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social tension grows, because people feel the system is rigged.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\" start=\"3\">\r\n<li>Do you see this playing out in real life?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Absolutely. The process of gentrification shows how wealthy residents enter working-class neighborhoods to raise housing costs which forces out established residents. The funding for public schools in poor areas remains insufficient while private schools and wealthy districts maintain superior educational resources. The COVID-19 crisis revealed how wealthy individuals obtained private medical care yet essential workers faced dangerous conditions with minimal protection.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Example:<br \/>The pandemic period brought about a massive increase in billionaire wealth which reached hundreds of billions of dollars while millions of Americans lost their jobs and struggled to pay rent and needed food bank assistance. The wealth gap becomes visible when observed in the present moment.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Which statistic on wealth inequality made the biggest impression on you? Why? The most striking wealth inequality statistic revealed that the top 1% of Americans possess wealth exceeding the combined total of the bottom 90%. The discovery of this fact hit me because it reveals the actual extent of wealth concentration. The wealth distribution shows&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion-board-5-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0507-spring-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0507-spring-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0507-spring-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0507-spring-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9021"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0507-spring-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10882"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0507-spring-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10884,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0507-spring-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10882\/revisions\/10884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0507-spring-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0507-spring-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0507-spring-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}