Group items tagged

"It's morning again in America" - that was a campaign slogan by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. But, in retrospect, the average American has been stuck since the Reagan era in a predawn darkness of stagnation and inequality, and we still haven't shaken it off, particularly since 2000. Inequality has increased further under President Obama." This article stated that since President Reagan, Income inequality has soared. It had increases very much under President Obama

"When Thomas Gilbert Jr. was arrested on Monday and charged with killing his wealthy father with a gunshot to the head, the rubbernecking and tut-tutting began almost immediately." There had been a dispute between a son and his father over an allowance.  The dispute began after 30 year old Thomas Gilbert Jr. was upset and apparently pulled the trigger.  This might not have happened if the family was not wealthy and had a lower income.   

"There may now be more multi-millionaires and billionaires than ever before in the world, but since the 2008 global financial crisis the wealth gap between the world's top 1% and the rest of us has grown." This article shows the growing gap between the Haves and Have-Nots'

"President Obama is in Tennessee on Friday, along with the state's Republican governor and two Republican senators, to lay out his plan for free community college. The plan - which would require congressional approval - would apply to students attending a two-year college, including part time, so long as the college offered credits that could transfer to a four-year college or provided training that led to jobs." This shows our president trying to get the Have-not's a better chance at education

"Obama stands up for students' future." Talks about how Obama stands up for "middle-class families" college saving plans. Obama helps students with their college saving plans.

"The government helps students' education." This article talks about what the government is doing to help colleges and how people can get into college because of the government.

"Millennial men reported having median annual household income of $77,000; women as a group reported their income was $56,000: for every $1 the men earned, women earned about 73 cents. College-educated women fared slightly better: while their male counterparts pocketed a median income of $83,000, they reported earning $63,000, or about 76 cents for every dollar. " This article is about income inequality between men and women. Women are being payed less making it harder for them to save money when they start off lower than men.

This is an article about how kids from wealthier families get a better education that kids from lower and middle classes. This article also explains that the government gives wealthy people better treatment than others.

A brief over view of a speech Obama gave on income inequality and what it means to him personally. He states several scenarios where government programs helped get him and his family through hard times and comes to the conclusion that although the budget is tight, we shouldn't cut government programs.

Basically this article talks about the opportunity gap between poorer and richer students and how little things, like texts to the students and telling parents about their child's performance in school, can help start closing that gap.

"Under Medicaid expansion, it is fragrantly false that everyone gets a 'fair' shot or plays by the same set of rules. For Obamacare's designers have heavily tilted the playing field to get an outcome more to their likeing."

"The struggles of the poor in the United States are even starker than those of the middle class. A family at the 20th percentile of the income distribution in this country makes significantly less money than a similar family in Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland or the Netherlands." This article talks about how the poor and middle class are making less money than other country's poor and middle class. Also how the gap between middle class and upper class is widening.

"The study, published ahead of this week's annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, suggests that by 2016 the gap between the world's rich and poor will widen to the extent that those at the top of the income pile will control over 50% of total global wealth. That percentage is up from 48% in 2014." According to a study, the richest 1% is expected to own more than half of the world's money by 2016

"The lack of jobs is the new normal because our tax and regulatory policies are driving more businesses and jobs to other countries. One would think that with so many Baby Boomers retiring, a ton of jobs would become available. Apparently, that isn't happening, which shows how sick our job market is. It's time for new leadership to address the fundamental problems: taxes, regulations, education (geared toward future job requirements) and reduction of illegal immigration." This article speaks about the responsibility of the people that can change the unemployment. It brings a negative point that unemployment is seeming to be the new normal and that these required responsibilities should be fixed for helping employment even more.

"But even if the 53-year-old Ohio man learned of a job he could do with herniated discs, he said, the government disability program feels like "a blanket covering you, and to walk out from it…at my age, it's a little intimidating."" The article outlines how a former truck driver named James Ottesen is trying to cope with his disability, and how he wishes to not live off of government welfare money. This shows that the "Haves" should and do care for the "Have-Nots" in America, but the "Have-Nots" would rather support themselves rather than accepting free money. Additionally, Ottesen describes how walking away from government protection is very difficult with his disabilities and age, and that he would like to prove that while his body may be broken with herniated discs, his mind is still as sharp as ever.

Please note that this article should be accessed from a google search, for the link above does not present the full article.

It addresses the shrinking American middle class. The middle class doesn't have that high of income anymore. I think that there will be a gap between the rich and the poor and no middle class soon the way it's going.

"Wealth inequality is also an artifact of income inequality; the two trends work together to magnify the former. As the bottom 90% struggle to make ends meet on stagnant incomes, they're unable to accumulate savings. "Today, the top 1% save about 35% of their income," the authors write, "while bottom 90% families save about zero."" This article can be summarized in saying that income inequality is a significant issue because it goes hand in hand with wealth inequality, which is a serious issue.

"Around the country, high-achieving recent high school grads have unpacked their shower caddies, flip flops, and smart phone chargers, and begun to settle in at elite colleges like Columbia, Amherst, and Stanford. On campus they're discovering countless resources, bright peers, and illustrious faculty. And for the rest of their lives, they'll enjoy the benefits of having a top university tattooed across their transcript and resume. But many high-achieving students are left out of this experience. Those excluded come disproportionately from families on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder. One recent investigation reported that students from the bottom 50 percent of the income distribution comprise just 14 percent of the undergraduate population at the United States' most competitive universities." This article explains some of the reasons why lower-class students with excellent grades aren't applying to elite colleges. One reason is that students fail to learn about these colleges from their local high schools, so they depend on their families to make the best decision about college. Lower-class families look first at the admission to get into the prestigious colleges, and this immediately turns them away.

"This ecological, contextual view of schooling will cultivate the understanding that significantly more students can cross the PreK-12 finish line with the tools needed to race to the top of where they wish to go. Educators will learn that while factors such as poverty will not desist, both teachers and students can develop mindsets, skills and practices that will diminish its effects." This article talks about finding the right formula for closing the achievement gap in America's public school classrooms and those who get left behind. It brings forth many plans that increase funding for education, better assessments, growth models etc. It also talks about proposing an ecological model that views everyone within the system where a component of the model identifies multiples contextual factors and influences on a students achievement.

"For nearly 50 years, the federal government has tried- but largely failed- to find the right formula to close the achievement gap between the highest-performing students in America's public school classrooms and those who get left behind."