Modern Day de Pham
Modern Day de Pham is a recreation of Modern Day de Tocqueville. There are three chapters with three different topics along with a multimedia for each one. Multimedias can be viewed in the multimedia tab.
Enjoy!
Income inequality has increased for decades now and it is becoming a wider issue amongst Americans today. The conflict of income inequality has risen due to many reasons such as tax, our unemployment rate, areas of poverty, social mobility, social status, gender, race, and education. But the real argument is how are we living in a country with democracy but income inequality exists? Our social classes have a massive gap in between and it is only hurting our economy and most importantly, it is not fair for citizens who are affected by this.
Two issues that causes income inequality is a person’s identity/background and the huge gap in between each social status class.
According to Investopedia, the definition of income inequality and the explanation is: “The causes of income inequality can vary significantly by region, gender, education and social status. Economists are divided as to whether income equality is ultimately positive or negative and what are the implications of such disparity.” Although this webpage did not have a lot of information but this quote is about how a income inequality is determined upon a person’s identity such as gender, race, social status, where they are from/live and their educational background. To tie this observation with another one, on newyorker.com, there is an article titled “American Inequality in Six Charts” ,it states “Generally speaking, these are areas that have high numbers of African-American residents and a lot of residential segregation, which has inevitably focussed attention on the roles race and segregation play in sustaining a caste-like system, in which those who start out at the bottom tend to stay there.” Income inequality is often spread out through areas of poverty and most areas with poverty in country usually consist of families of African Americans with low income or Hispanic/Latino families who are in similar situations. When it comes down to these cases, social mobility comes into place. Often times, if you are born into a low income family, it’s statistically shown that most likely it will be very challenging for you to break out of your system and move up in your social status. And it is the same for the other way, if you are born in a high income family, you will most likely stay in that social class and not move down or below it. This pattern continues due to the fact that these families are constantly stuck in poor neighborhoods and these are minorities that we are speaking about.
An article named “This Rising Costs of U.S. Income Inequality” from Huffington, it states “Children born into low and high income families are born with similar abilities. But they have very different educational opportunities, with children in low income families less likely to have access to early childhood education, more likely to attend under-resourced schools that deliver inferior K-12 education, and less likely to attend or complete college.” The point of the quote is that children who are born into low income families also lack resources and has disadvantages of affording basic needs(in our country) such as education. Without even a education, our younger generations will be stuck in this cycle of income inequality and it’s a system that is really hard to fight back and maintain.
The huge/wide gap between social status classes also takes a big toll in our economy and it adds more into income inequality. A book titled “The Price of Inequality” written by Joseph Stiglitz, it states “The simple story of America is this: the rich are getting richer, the richest of the rich are getting still richer, the poor are becoming poorer and more numerous, and the middle class is being hollowed out. The incomes of the middle class are stagnating or falling, and the difference between them and the truly rich is increasing.” This quote means that people are not breaking out of their own system and they are only falling deeper into the income inequality. There is no active social mobility between all three classes. There’s a huge gap of two kinds of social statuses. Middle class is no longer means what it’s supposed to. Another quote from the book is, “Belief in America’s essential fairness, that we live in a land of equal opportunity, helps bind us together. That, at least, is the American myth, powerful and enduring. Increasingly, it is just that —a myth.” We live in a democratic country that claims that we have the freedom to have these equal opportunities to succeed but we all these issues that weigh us down and the sad truth is that it is not true, it is a myth and a misconception of our country.
From a famous New York Times article, “No Degree and No Way Back in the Middle”, it states "I may look middle class," said Mr. McClellan, who is 45, with a square, honest face and a barrel chest. "But I'm not. My boat is sinking fast." McClellan was telling his experience and view on being a middle class citizen but however, in the story, he states that he does not feel like his social status lives up to his definition. According to the government, they view him as middle class. What do we think about when we hear the middle class social status? We think about what it literally means by the name of it. Middle as in average and affordable living. You shouldn’t be poor nor rich. However, it seems like middle class can relate to low income class but it has this title that covers the truth behind it.
If we want to improve our economy and grow better as a country, we need to live up to what our country is and that is a democratic country. We just educate ourselves about the system of what causes income inequality and demand a change. The more we continue to let income inequality expand, the rich will only get richer and the poor will only stay poor or even poorer.
Chapter 1: The Truth and Causes of Income Inequalities in a Democratic Country
Chapter 2: Does America Prefer Gender Inequality or Female Empowerment?
Fighting for gender equality and female empowerment has been a big impact of our history and has greatly changed our society and it continues to affect people everyday. Although all the conflicts of gender inequality and women’s rights are not completely solved, there are many more issues that are still risen. Female empowerment is technically related to gender inequality/equality because there is a lot of controversy that women lack a lot more rights than men. But gender inequality/equality does not exclude men because they matter also because gender inequality/equality is about both genders, not just women. But many people often confuse between gender equality and female empowerment. There’s a misconception that others have assumed that gender equality and female empowerment has the same definition, which affects the other gender which is males. If we are fighting for equalities for both genders, we must speak up for both sides of the gender instead of classifying female empowerment as the same thing of feminism. America has a very unbalanced idea on whether they prefer gender equality or female empowerment.
An article “Gender inequality in the U.S. today” states “These numbers certainly represent progress for women in employment and education. But to take them as a sign that gender inequality is no longer present in the United States would be a dangerous mistake.” The point is that when it comes down to working, women often have more disadvantages(inequality) than men therefore it is more like to have people encourage that fact that female empowerment is more crucial especially since it affects the work field. Since inequalities has been happening since women have begun working, it is surprising to see how long women have been in the work field but still deal with unfairness because of their gender. This adds even further more of why people in our society believe that female empowerment needs more help and support than gender inequality in general which includes men.
This article “Gender equality and women’s empowerment are key to addressing global poverty”, it states “Two third of the global illiterate population are women. Because women constitute the majority of the world’s poor and because development goals have not been achieved—particularly where gender inequality thrives—women’s empowerment and gender equality must a focus of the U.N. development agenda beyond 2015 when the Millennium Development Goals are set to expire.” Lack of education for women has caused poverty which also causes development goals to be unable to reach. It’s known that women were not allowed to receive an education back in the days, in most countries, women are able to be educated but it is now 2015 and women still lack the need of education. This causes the scale of females in gender inequality to weigh more than men because the global development goals is slowing down due to the fact that women can’t even get an education which is the first step to stepping into work field. The fact that women still lack the need of education shows how much inequality remains in the past, in that case, the answer is: very little remains in the past.
Gender equality and female empowerment is one of the many issues that continues to rise in America. Both demand a big change in society and adjustment in many fields. Although it seems like America prefers female empowerment rather than gender equality, the category of female empowerment falls into gender equality but it is often misuse as the entire topic of Feminism. Gender inequality has changed our democracy. It has not only changed it but it goes against the point of democracy. Democracy is all about fairness but gender inequality has nothing to do with being equal to all citizens.
Chapter 3: Immigrants' Perspective on Democracy
America was discovered by immigrants and over centuries, people were born into the country and are labeled as what we call “citizens”. However, now there’s a big label on those who enter our country and we call them “immigrants”. For those who do not know any immigrants or have family members as immigrants, it is hard for some people to understand what immigrants have to go through in America. Immigrants in America lack a lot of rights and most people are not aware of this. Many immigrants come over to seek more opportunities and personal rights that their country did not have. Our country is known for democracy and a variety of rights that a lot of people desire from third world countries. However, do immigrants really receive and experience the democracy they deserve?
An article “Illegal immigrants live on edge of society, fearing deportation” states ““Ana, who is separated from her husband, did not want to be identified. Nor did she want people to know where she works. Ana lives in the shadows because she fears deportation and separation from her three children, who are United States citizens. "As soon as you see the police, everything comes to a standstill," she said, tears in her eyes. "The kids are scared, too. They see how their mother lives. I do not want someone else to raise my children."” This quote that Ana said shows that she fears deportation everyday because she’s an undocumented immigrant. Ana came over to start a family here so her children in the future can have the full-on rights that she wants for them however, she, herself is not a citizen. Walking down the street to buy food from a store is a fear for Ana and other undocumented immigrants because they fear of being caught and getting deported. If Ana is deported, her kids will be stuck over in America as their Mother is back in their homeland, due to her children who are born over here so they’re considered citizens. Everyday, their lives is being feared from this fact and it causes them to not being able to do what they want or live their lives freely here like they the reason why they came over here in the first place. Immigrants come over here for opportunities and rights but they can’t even take on these chances when their status in America is holding them back.
In the same article, it also states “I live the same way other immigrants live," Marta said. "Every day, it is more insecure for us. Families have to work, but we cannot drive because many of us cannot get driver's licenses. It is all very stressful. We are humans, but the government treats us like we are criminals." This quote shows that these immigrants are experiencing a different view of them. They come over here for freedom and rights but they’re being treated as criminals. They’re being divided as if they came over here for the wrong reason when we are just humans who are moving to places for a better life for themselves and for family members.
An article “Why don’t they get in line?” which is about the statistics of immigrants attempting to come into the US legally. There is a chart that states the average of how many immigrants have applied to get into the US legally and how many are actually accepted (paperwork passed, papers processed correctly, eligibility, etc.)
As you can see, in Mexico, Philippines, India, India, Vietnam, China, Dominican Republic, there are over hundreds of thousands of applicants (Mexico has over a million, in fact) and only 47,250 applicants are accepted per year for all those countries. That is only one tenth of the overall amount of applicants. For those who didn’t make it into the yearly acceptance of passing legal paperwork, they are either put on the waitlist for next year or their applications gets completely canceled. There are immigrants who have been on the waitlist or reapplied for a decade and may still be continuing. Looking at the bigger picture, all of these people who are put on the waitlist for next year (or for on going years) do not want to wait that long. For those who are undocumented immigrants, they did not want to wait and go through this very long unfair process. They will do what they need to do to come over to this country to seek what they want in life.
Among the many reasons why people come to our country, it all comes down for a change in our society to become more aware of how our immigrants here experience democracy in a different perspective.
