I'm kind of split between this one. Yes I do think there is
such a thing as economic inequality. It is a big deal in other countries like
Wilkinson said, like in developing countries. But I think in America it's not
such a big deal. Here in America we have what's called the American dream.
People can come to this country from nothing and grow and gain so much. If you
were born poor or a lower class in America you do not have to stay in that
class. I believe in America it is very easy to climb ranks because there's so
many opportunities here with jobs and education. Yes we still have people who
are extremely rich and extremely poor, but we do have a strong middle class.
Wilkinson states "...we got to do you with the post tax things in the
pretax things. We got to constrain income, the bonus culture income at the
top.... I think the take-home message though is that we can improve the real
quality of human life by reducing the differences and incomes between us".
See this is where I get a little confused. If you and another person or working
the same job yes you should have the same salary. But a CEO of a major company
should get paid way more then a garbage truck driver. How can we say that they
need to equal income? They have two completely different jobs. And one of them
went to school longer and spend much more money to get where they are. I think
jobs in similar requirements could get paid the same salary but if they're on
the opposite side of the spectrum from each other and they shouldn't. Right now
I think that there are a lot of other things at stake that need to be fixed
first like education, health reform, and immigration, and this is not something
that can be solved over night, but should not be pushed aside for years either
Although I do disagree, I think I understand your points. I believe Wilkinson is trying to say that the quality of as a whole is more important than the American dollar. I also think he is trying to sneak a little something under the door. That is how individualistic nations are when it comes to economy. Adapting to the people instead of the market. One statement that I believe is wrong is, “Yes we still have people who are extremely rich and extremely poor, but we do have a strong middle class.” I do not believe our middle class is strong or even the so called “middle class” everyone thinks it is. The New York Times author Eduardo Porter wrote in 2013, “So either we define the middle class down a couple of notches or we acknowledge that the middle class isn’t in the middle anymore.” Data tells us that the margin for middle class needs to be dropped because the middle class we all know, is shrinking drastically. As a whole, I liked the comment and your view point, but I feel he is quoting more on the wellbeing of society in the face of economics, rather than just economics.
ReplyDelete