The Sunday, June 29th's New York Times' Opinion section includes an article titled "Inequality is Not Inevitable" (see link:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/27/inequality-is-not-inevitable/?ref=opinion). After reading the article and summarizing its content in the blog, state your opinion on the matter. Be ready to share your views in class before your fellow students for extra credit.
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The article basically states that our country is very unfair in terms of economy, healthcare, and oru legal system. in our economy, the rich get richer while the poor are barely scraping by, and the middle class is starting to fade in between them.Corporate interests argued for getting rid of regulations, even when those regulations had done so much to improve our environment, our well being, and the economy itself. The average C.E.O makes 295 times more than the typical worker, and over the years the income has increased and there isn't much evidence in increase in productivity. Corporate welfare increases while the poor's welfare is minimizing.The banks that brought on the global financial crisis were given billions of dollars and barely any of that was given to the people that they victimized. The true test of economy is not how much money the noble can make in taxes, its by how the average citizen does. In America we are proud of our great middle class, but our median incomes are lower than they were a quarter century ago. The real growth has been at the very top, whose share has almost quadrupled since 1980. Our legal system is also very unfair, because the people who manipulate are the rich, who use it to get richer. Justice is a commodity, only affordable to few. the Wall Street executives who were supposed to be blamed for the crisis in 2008 were let go scotch free, and the banks abused our legal system to evict and foreclose innocent people's homes.Healthcare itself is known as a universally accepted human right, in advanced countries.however, in America we have a division between access to healthcare. When people felt the weight lifted off them when the Affordable Care Act passed, they did not fully realize the ramifications on medicaid. Obama-care's purpose was to help provide healthcare access to all, however progress on that was halted. 24 states have yet to implement the expanded medicaid program, which was ssupposed to pave the way to obamacare to work. We should deviate from the system where the rich manipulate the system to get richer. The real underlying problem is political inequities and policies that have commodified and corrupted our democracy.
ReplyDeleteMy opinion on the matter is that i do agree with the ideas stated by the author in the article. I do agree that the banks abuse our legal system to foreclose houses. it is very unfair that we can't do much about it, considering we aren't at the top of the spectrum. In the article is said something about when criticizing the 1%, it is comparable to Nazi Fascism. it's very extremist to me, seeing as how Nazi fascism is completely different from criticizing someone. The struggle is real.
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ReplyDeleteThe article written by Joseph E. Stiglitz speaks volumes about the current economic and political situation of US society. It tries to put into a perspective the grat level of inequality that permeates today's society.
ReplyDeleteIn addition,the article tells us how perfect competition ought to be at least. However, the practice of monopolies in which high profits are the final goal have ruined it. It seems amazing that C.E.O.s make such large amounts of money without increasing their productivity. As per this article, "C.E.O.s average 295 times that of the typical worker." Sliglitz analyzes the position of the United States after the Cold War. He says that since the USA was so victorious, international competition no longer existed. Thus, the USA did not have to prove to anyone the efficacy of its system.
It explains the impact of money on USA political system.
Economic inequality ends up having an effect on politics.
While the big corporations make tons of money, the benefits of the poor are diminished. Drug companies received large sums of money while Medicaid benefits are
reduced. The financial institutions were given money to help the people who were losing their home during the financial real estate crisis. However, most if not all of the money never made it ito the hands of the people who need it.
Justice has become a commodity for the ones who can pay. Since the people who are well off live almost segregated in their neighborhoods, they have become almost isolated from the poor. Inequality is a reality and it is not inevitable.
In my opinion, I agree with this article. My grandfather used to say that ever since Eve tasted the apple, she did not go back to eat mangoes. In Nicaragua, the rich eat apple and the poor mangoes for Christmas because mangoes are cheaper. Power and money usually go together. Both of them end up creating greedy. Whether Latin America, Europe or the great USA, humans are no different even though we like to believe otherwise.
the article "Inequality is not Inevitable" by Joseph E. Staglitz he discussed the current state of our government and our political system and how we got to where we are. He says that our government is ran by the rich with the only intent of keeping the rich that way and helping them further their riches. he says thay since the 1980's the salaries of Company heads (C.E.O's) have almost quadrupled while the salaries of the average person has reduced by 13% and how C.E.O's make about 295 times what the average Employee makes. furthermore he discussed the 2008 housing crises and how wall street was bailed out and received billions of dollars and hardly any of that money was seen by the people effected by it who lost their homes in that time period. he also discusses the Affordable Care Act and how it's intent was to give affordable health insurance to everyone in our country like almost every other developed country but yet and still 24 of our countries 50 states (almost half) have yet to start implementing the expansions needed for the Medicaid program. Stiglitz says that the only way were going to see a change in this country is if we enforce it by using the power we have as citizens and i agree with him, the only way the middle man is going to move forward is by speaking up.
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