Income Disparity

Lia Baez

Introduction:
Income Disparity: the difference between the incomes of the richer and
poorer parts of society. The more unequal the distribution of wealth in an
economy, the greater the income disparity. (lexicon.ft.com)
Question: Is there a trend that shows a greater income gap between
minority and majority groups in the same socioeconomic class?

Article 1: Expos
Wealth inequality in America: Its worse than you think
By: Chris Matthews
In America, the wealthy families (less than 1% of the population) own as much
as the poor families all together (the other 99% of the population).
Not only is the income gap growing, the American dream is in danger: the poor
stay poor while the rich get richer.
In other words, theres evidence that rising inequality and many other
intractable social problems are related. Not only is rising inequality bad for
business, its bad for society, too. (Matthews, para. 12)

Picture
An artists 2013 depiction
of the wealth gap in the
United States what would
it look like now?

Article 2: Expos
The Racial Wealth Gap: Why A Typical White Household Has 16 Times The Wealth Of A Black
One
By: Laura Shin
This article claims that the economic divide is happening along racial // ethnic lines.
According to Shin, the three main factors driving the income gap are:
1. Homeownership
redlining, higher interest rates.
2. Education
surge in college costs over recent years
3. Labor Market
employment discrimination, geographic barriers to jobs and differing levels of
social capital.

Picture
A testament that vast
income gap is affecting
Americas economic
progress.

Article 3: Book
Urban Enclaves
By: Mark Abrahamson
Abrahamson did say that enclaves usually have nothing to do with the notion of
economically-sustained ghettos. However:
On the African American enclave in Detroit, Michigan:
The most prominent of the characteristics are: skin color, economic/social status,
and poor living conditions of people within the enclave.
Separating poor from poorest
Keeping the poor as they are, where they are
Beacon Hill, Boston on the other hand:
Mostly Caucasian population rich and safe

Picture
A comparison of inner city
Detroit to Beacon Hill in
Boston.

Book Report
The Divide | American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap
By: Matt Taibbi
Poverty goes up. Crime goes down. The prison population doubles. Fraud by the rich
wipes out 40 percent of the worlds wealth. The rich get massively richer. No one goes to
jail. (Taibbi)
Most of the people in prison are poor members of the minority, driven to crime by
desperation.
Answers the question of why the gap continues to grow:
System devours the life of the poor, turns a blind eye to the destructive crimes
of the wealthy, and implicates us all.

Table

Conclusion: Im sure that there are wealthy

members of society that are considered minority

population. However, the obvious trend is one of
discrimination and suffering happening in the lowest class. A
class comprised of poor Blacks, Latinos, etc. I was actually
expecting to find nothing that even came close to verifying my
premature notions; I was truly appalled at my discoveries. In
sum, the answer is yes. There is indeed an increase in income
disparity between different races and ethnicities within the
same economic class.

References (in order of appearance)

http://lexicon.ft.com/Term?term=income-disparity
http://fortune.com/2014/10/31/inequality-wealth-income-us/
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/If-us-land-mass-were-distributed-like-us-wealth.png
http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2015/03/26/the-racial-wealth-gap-why-a-typical-white-household-has-16-times-the-wealth-of-a-black-one/#23ee87be6c5b
http://d35brb9zkkbdsd.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/blackworkers.jpg
Abrahamson, Mark. Urban Enclaves: Identity and Place in America. New York: St. Martin's, 1996. Print.
http://atlantablackstar.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/detroit-bankrupt.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UTCanNkQlIA/UoYyH1jGkGI/AAAAAAAAAn8/0MkFZnztF5I/s1600/Beacon-Hill-Boston.jpg
Taibbi, Matt. The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap. First ed. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2014. Print.
https://differenttogether.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/wealth-gap.png