Haves and Have Nots Seminar - Moody Middle School

This article discusses that over the years, the number of people with jobs has decreased drastically. Many people are just getting by with welfare from the government, even though they are perfectly capable of getting a job.

"It's tough to gauge how the tax plan would actually help the middle class because the averages can be deceiving. Many people pounced on a recent Tax Policy Center analysis that showed middle income people, making between $49,000 and $84,000, would pay an extra $7 in tax, on average." This article talks about president Obama's new Middle Class Economics. Only about 25% of the middle class will receive benefits from these tax cuts.

"We need her in Long Beach, where the school district is determined to institutionalize income inequality by making most school activities accessible to wealthier kids only. When you implement a system in which those who pay the most get the most, then those who can't feel left out and are not as likely to succeed." This article explains how the school system where they live makes it impossible for kids from lesser income families to participate in school wide events. Which makes it harder for kids to succeed in school.

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.

"Black males, even when given the same educational and economic resources as their peers of other races, are likely to fall short of their counterparts in virtually every measure of academic success." This article begins by talking about how the United States is the ideal place to get an education, how anything is possible, and how opportunity is plentiful. It then however proceeds to talk about "invisible barriers" that are especially apparent in African American males. They credit support this with statistics that show that African American boys are two times as likely to be held back in school and three times more likely to be suspended. They finish by talking about how it is necessary to "re-vamp" the American education system.

This article discusses the differences in educational opportunities between races. One thing that it states is that the average Hispanic or black student achieves the same educational level as the lowest degree of whites. 

"Mr. Stanton created a fund-raising campaign for Mott Hall Bridges on a crowdfunding site, Indiegogo Life, with the aim of raising $100,000. Within days, it had raised enough to pay for 10 years of trips to Harvard, and the money was still pouring in." This article explains a positive contribution to the haves and have nots of education and income. It explains how less fortunate school with low income family's that filter into this school did a fundraiser that generated so much money for future graduates.

This article discusses Obama's views on closing the income gap. It talks about the differences and impacts on the different classes. 

"IWPR tracks the gender wage gap over time in a series of fact sheets updated twice per year. According to our research, if change continues at the same slow pace as it has done for the past fifty years, it will take 44 years-or until 2058-for women to finally reach pay parity. IWPR's annual fact sheet on the gender wage gap by occupation shows that women earn less than men in almost any occupation. IWPR's Status of Women in the States project tracks the gender wage gap across states." This articles speaks about the wage gap between genders in the work force. It talks about the time it will take for the genders to receive equal pay and it also speaks about the segregation of jobs based on gender.

"The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a landmark federal law that protects the rights of people with disabilities by eliminating barriers to their participation in many aspects of living and working in America." This article describes the truth about the ADA. The ADA does not require businesses to hire unqualified individuals with disabilities; however, it ensures that there is no discrimination against them in the hiring process. This act does not make it easier for an individual with a disability to get a job than one that does not have a disability, it simply makes sure that they are not discriminated against.

The 16,000 families making up the richest 0.01%, with an average net worth of $371m, now control 11.2% of total wealth-back to the 1916 share, which is the highest on record. Those down the distribution have not done quite so well: the top 0.1% (consisting of 160,000 families worth $73m on average) hold 22% of America's wealth, just shy of the 1929 peak-and exactly the same share as the bottom 90% of the population. This article discusses, on a relatively small scale, income inequality and disproportionate income growth, as the "top 1% of families grew 3.4% a year...the bottom 90% grew .7%." While the top .1%'s share of labor income seems to have peaked, this article raises some questions about social (and economic) mobility.

Rea S. Hederman, an economist at the right-of-center Heritage Foundation, a Washington research group, said that "the problem is that the policies that encourage growth also encourage inequality," citing the preferential tax rates for investment income as an example. "That means redistributing income is going to restrict growth." This article talks about many different things. It talks about how the United States might be heading into a cycle, starting with a depression and then the government rises and falls repeatedly. It also talks about how when they government encourages overall growth, they encourage inequality with it. The inequality needs to be fixed first, so that the economy can grow overall, as the article states.

"The gap between the wealthy and the poor is most extreme in several of the United States' most prosperous and largest cities." In this article, the gap between the wealthy and poor is discussed. In many cities, there is a large difference. Often, there is a relationship between economic success and income inequality.

"The gender pay gap is hopelessly static right now. For the last decade, median earnings for women working full time, year-round have been just 77% of men's earnings. This oft-cited percentage stems from U.S. Census Bureau data and is not, despite critiques, something made up by feminists to (heaven forbid) give women raises. However, that stat is just a snapshot of the pay gap in the U.S., so it's important to drill down deeper. The American Association of University Women's research report, Graduating to a Pay Gap, does just that." This article speaks about the pay gap between women and men, and it also speaks about the unfair advantages the male has to the female in the work force. It also adds how the congress must pass an act for equal pay in order to protect everyone from this unfair income inequality.

"After decades of widening inequality, Virginia's richest households have dramatically bigger incomes than its poorest households." This article gives statistics of the income of Virginia's richest and poorest households. It supports the idea that income inequality has been growing in VA since the '70's.

"income inequality were asked whether the rich take more from the world than they contribute." This article just talks about how the rich feel they are not causing income inequality in the world.

"During times like the 1950s and 1960s, a rising level of educational attainment kept up with this rising demand for skill. But since the late 1970s and early 1980s, the rise in U.S. education levels has not kept up with the rising demand for skilled workers, and the slowdown in educational attainment has been particularly severe for males. The result has been a sharp rise in the inequality of wages." This 2010 report from MIT's Department of Economics describes in detail the causes of polarization of job opportunities; it states that the supply and demand for skilled workers has changed over time, resulting in a workforce gap concentrated between " relatively high-skill, high-wage jobs and low-skill, low wage jobs." This report was linked from an NPR article (http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/10/02/349863761/40-years-of-income-inequality-in-america-in-graphs) which shows the correlation between education and percentile household income.

"This is a question not of equality, but of social mobility: If you're born poor, what are the chances of dying non-poor? Inequality matters less if you have a chance of moving between unequal poles." This article talks about how the inequality gap between the have and the have-nots are increasing. The article states that the rich only get richer, and the poor are more likely to stay poor. The inability to start poor and become rich makes the inequality gap a huge problem

"Joffe-Walt's six-month investigation into America's disability program found a record-high 14 million Americans receiving disability checks in a system rife with fraud and dependency-inducing abuse that costs taxpayers $260 billion a year-more than food stamps and welfare combined." This article is very Conservative sided and talks of how disability costs america hundreds of millions each year. It also provides interesting facts about how much disability costs compared to other handout services the government pays for.