Income Inequality
Despite all of the greatness and achievements that our great country has accomplished,
there are also a very significant amount of things that we as a country are relatively not so proud
of. Many of these things people may begin to believe are tragedies or terrible accidents that have
occurred throughout history that result in unnecessary death to perhaps innocent citizens, in
many cases children as well. However, there are also may severe scenarios that strongly affected
our country in a way that formulated the upcoming future that did not necessary result in death.
Regardless, they both are opportunities for lessons to be learned both individually and as a
country as a whole. An example of this demonstrated situation would be the ongoing situation
regarding income inequality. According to investopedia.com, the brief description given
regarding income inequality is verbatim, the unequal distribution of household or individual
income across the various participants in an economy; income inequality is often presented as the
percentage of income to a percentage of population. This description, while it is still accurate, is
simply just the tip of the iceberg. This is a topic that can easily be debated and discussed not just
by regular everyday individuals but as well as the most respected or wealthiest people in the
world extending as far as the President of the United States. Noah Webster, is quite arguably the
most respected and intelligent writer to ever exist. He has even been recognized as the “Father
of American Scholarship and Education”. Noah Webster had one stated “The causes which
destroyed the ancient republics were numerous; but in Rome, one principal cause was the vast
inequality of fortunes”. Although yes times have changed, the thing that Noah Webster is
attributing to is relatively the same idea of today’s situation of income inequality and the essence
of his idea is still completely relevant. Income inequality is something that may tend to be
overlooked by many, however it is extremely, not only awfully relevant, considering it involves
present day society, the more importantly it can be potentially harmful and perhaps destructive to
all individuals as well as over beloved country.
In present day, the income of the middle class is declining and it is a recognized fact.
Although, the reason for the decline has not been wholly or easily defined by anyone, there is not
solely one factor to put the entire fault on. That much is understood, that it is a collective
responsibility to be held that has been building up for years and years to come now. For
instance, a few factors that have certainly contributed to the commencement as well as the
growth on income inequality, include the impact of globalization, increased educational
requirements, even the federal government could be blamed with the federal tax policy that have
been imposed, however most importantly the productivity slowdown which occurred in the
1970s.
Although the effect of war contains numerous negative impacts on a country, which
include the death of many due to the sacrifice that they made for their country, there happens to
be one upside to a country going into war, aside from possibly resolving a dispute which initiated
the conflict. This benefit it contains is the affect that the war has on the country’s economy. In
order for a country to even become semi competitive they need to produce the required materials
and weapons. These materials include things from but not limited to, clothing, vehicles, medical
supplies, bullets, guns, and all other things used within the state of combat. All of these things
need to be produced in a relatively quick time frame in preparation for war. This in turn requires
not only the use of work services but as well as trading to occur to obtain these materials. Once
a company receives an order for such a great amount of their product that they are not used to
fulfilling, they than need to hire new employees to meet that requirement. This creation of jobs
will benefit the economy in numerous ways. The company will also have to obtain the raw
materials required to make their product which will have an identical effect on whomever they
chose to do business with.
Prior to the start of World War II in 1939, the United States of America was in the never
often disputed, worst time period in history. The year of 1929 was the initial commencement to
the extremely traumatic and essentially disastrous time known as the Great Depression. Till this
day not many would begin to argue with the idea that it was the closest time from rock bottom
that our country has ever experienced as some people even believed things were so bad that the
world was going to end. The reason for such terrible situation, in a brief description, is initially
when the stock market crashed in 1929. This date was proceeded by the “Roaring ‘20” in which
the American public first discovered the stock market and got involved. The crash wiped out
many people’s investments and the public was shaken as their money was gone. As for the
people who did not prefer to risk their hard earned money in the market, they kept their money in
the banks. Soon once news begin to spread, people began to worry and panic and rushed to the
banks to withdraw their money. This caused bank failures to occur which in when a bank is
unable to meet its obligations to its depositors due to it being insolvent or too illiquid to meet its
liabilities. This had given people the idea that banks and even the government can simply not be
trusted anyone as there are even several cases in which some people hide their money in the
walls of their home as they felt it simply was not safe elsewhere.
The United States did not necessarily get involved in the war for economic reasons, for
that they were pressured to join due to reasons such as the sinking of a United States innocent
civilian ship by the Germans along with other factors such as Pearl Harbor. However, despite all
the difficult to overlook hardships, the war did indirectly, along with the great assistance from
current President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, enable the United States to escape the Great
Depression. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was first elected into office, he
introduced a proposition titled the Hundred Days. Between March 8th and June 16th, congress
followed Roosevelt’s lead by passing an incredible fifteen separate bills which, together, formed
the basis of the New Deal. Several of the programs created during those three and a half months
are still around in the federal government today. Some of Roosevelt’s most notable actions
during the Hundred Days were a national bank holiday, ending the gold standard, the creation of
the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission, the Federal Securities Act and numerous others. The
national bank holiday occurred the day after President Roosevelt’s inauguration which closed all
banks in the country to prevent a collapse of the banking system. With the banks closed,
