Haves and Have Nots Seminar - Moody Middle School

"But visiting a place like Grundy reveals a more complicated picture. There are undoubtedly some who exaggerate their ailments in order to collect their checks. But many of the coal workers here have experienced horrific on-the-job accidents and can't go back to the mines. Other residents have been battered by diabetes, obesity, and tobacco. Others still suffer from severe depression and intellectual disabilities that would preclude most kinds of work. And most importantly, there are no other options here: no orthodontist's office where someone can work the front desk; no big firms brimming with entry-level secretarial jobs. It's not even clear how a person would go about calling around for a job here: My iPhone stopped working a few miles outside the county line." This article describes a small county, nestled in the Virginia Appalachians where many of the citizens rely on disability checks coming in every month. It argues both sides of the 'responsibility' argument, with examples of people who truly need disability payments and people who abuse the system.

"Over half of the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts - join the club. Who doesn't get a little anxious for work and their back hurts? " In this article by the Washington Post, disability insurance is scrutinized to determine how people are abusing and misusing it. Ever since the "baby boomers" hit their 40s and 50s, the cost of disability insurance peaked over the monetary income funding the program. Is it worth it to keep paying "injured" workers?

This article focuses on life expectancy and income inequality, as well as health and income inequality.

"Gates' solution? Shift the American tax code from one that taxes labor to one that taxes consumption. Now, this sounds like standard, right-wing economic theory. Consumption taxes are usually favored by the wealthy and by conservative economists because they tend to be regressive in nature. Since everyone-rich and poor-have to consume some amount of goods and services, and because the proportion of income spent is much higher for the poor than the rich, consumption taxes like state and local sales tax burden the poor more than the rich." This article outlines different solutions to income inequality posed by different people with varying social statuses. It also displays causes of some of these problems and introduces unique solutions.

"The recession seems to have cemented the country's income and wealth inequality, not reversed it. The top 10 percent earn a larger share of overall income than they have since the 1930s. The earnings of the top 1 percent took a knock during the recession, but have bounced back. In contrast, the average working family's income has continued to decline through the anemic recovery." This article discusses the overall effects and causes of income inequality in the United States and what might happen in the years to come. According to the article, the growth of our economy has become sluggish due to income inequality, it's a bigger issue than we once though it was. In this article economists discuss whether and how the gap between the rich and the poor fueled the recession and what it might mean for our future.

"Over the last several decades, union membership in the United States has declined precipitously, from 24 percent of all wage and salary workers in 1973 to 11.1 percent today. At the same time, our economy has increasingly begun to favor the wealthiest members of society. The labor share of income has reached the lowest level it's been since 1929, and that diminished income is distributed incredibly unequally (see chart). According to data from Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, the richest 1 percent of Americans now take home the same share of wage income as the bottom 50 percent." This article explains how much of a problem income inequality has become today regarding voters. This can help someone who is researching income inequality by showing them how it influences other aspects of the government.

"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.

"an educational system that provides such privilege to some students, while willfully and purposefully denying it to others." This article is about how a teacher has seen how some of her more privileged students succeed while the poorer ones don't have the opportunity to do anything great because of money problems.

"Before the school board and district can truly address the student achievement gap issues, they must be completely and painfully honest with themselves and others" This article, even though it was from 2 years ago, brings up a very good point. A big reason for achievement gaps is racism. It also says that the achievement gap in Henrico is caused by the incompetent school board and that they should change.

"Although economic growth in the United States continues to be as strong as in many other countries, or stronger, a small percentage of American households is fully benefiting from it. Median income in Canada pulled into a tie with median United States income in 2010 and has most likely surpassed it since then. Median incomes in Western European countries still trail those in the United States, but the gap in several - including Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden - is much smaller than it was a decade ago." This article talks about how America's middle class has slowly gone down economically. This has been so bad that the poor in Europe, are richer than the poor in America. The idea of everyone having money is great but it is very difficult to accomplish.

"suggesting that the best way to improve academic achievement was neither to integrate students nor to offer compensatory programs but, rather, to raise overall family income." This article discusses an old government funded project about educational opportunity and how it still relates to today. It states that the education gap is based more on family income.

"Because people are living longer and the birth rate is low, the ratio of workers to beneficiaries is falling. Therefore, the taxes that are paid by workers will not be enough to pay the full benefit amounts scheduled." This article is about how social security may not be around when our current generation retires. The premise of the article is that there are more retired people receiving money than their are people paying the taxes to give to the retired people. This basically states that when we grow older, their will be too many retirees and less people paying for our social security which means we might not get any money from social security.

"Experts note that welfare has done little to stem the growth of poverty among children. In all but two states, welfare benefits (including food stamps) are insufficient to move a family above the poverty line." This article talks about the many reasons for a welfare reform and the responsibilities that those that receive welfare have. It talks about how welfare doesn't encourage work and has done little to reduce poverty, especially among children. The authors believe that 42% of people that receive welfare do not work and in order to promote jobs, they might need to cut off the cash given to them so that the have-nots will have a responsibility for their children, their family, and their jobs.

"It is no secret that the past few decades of widening inequality can be summed up as significant income and wealth gains for those at the very top and stagnant living standards for the majority. I think it is appropriate to ask whether this trend is compatible with values rooted in our nation's history, among them the high value Americans have traditionally placed on equality of opportunity." "America, on the other hand, is lousy at moving many people out of poverty but great at making a very few very rich." Within the last year America has had created the most millionaires in the world. Economist argue that the recent rise in economic inequality stems from the massive salaries of high income earners. Basically as the upper class grows, those who are in the middle and lower class, will most likely stay there, with very few becoming millionaires

This is an article about Henrico schools receiving a top 10 rating in suspensions for African-American students with disabilities. Also, those suspensions were for relatively minor offenses. Henrico drafted a code which would decrease the suspensions.

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.

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.

"The gap between people in the highest percentiles of earnings and wealth distributions and the rest of society has grown significantly during the past several decades, a fact that has led to considerable public discussion about the nature of opportunities available in the United States. Often overlooked in this debate, however, is the importance of economic mobility-the extent to which people can move up or down the income ladder. " This research report, published by the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank, shows data on the economic gaps in the US as well as ways to attempt to minimize these and the opportunity gaps through different styles of education and where education has the biggest gaps.

"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