Socio-economic Inequality And Its Impact On A Specific Group In Society

Question 1

Introduction

Answer 1

• A very serious issue in the USA is social and economic inequality. With almost 40 million Americans ( United States census ) living in poverty in 2021, it’s been proven as a real and ongoing issue in the US, which has come into many policies of the Government over the past decade.
• This essay will discuss the extent to which social and economic inequality exists in the US by referring to specific key factors such as health, crime, income and education.
• Social and economic factors, although there has been slight improvement in past years, nevertheless poverty still affects a range of ethnic groups in the USA. This essay will argue that social and economic inequality does exist in the US to an extent.

Question 2

Crime is an inequality - Explain + Evidence

Answer 2

• One social inequality that exists in America is Crime.
• Black Americans are overrepresented in virtually all aspects of the criminal justice system.
• An example of this is as of 2023 Black Americans make up 38.5% of the prison system, however make up 12% of the population ( BOP.GOV) .

Question 3

Crime is an inequality - Analysis

Answer 3

• Arguably, this shows Black Americans are imprisoned at a higher percentage of their population in comparison to that of white Americans because there is a significant amount of racial inequality in the USA.

Question 4

Crime isn’t an inequality - explain+evidence

Answer 4

• Inequality in the area of crime in America has changed recently, in a positive direction for Black Americans.
• The rate of Black American inmates being incarcerated without sustainable evidence has decreased.
• An example, Between 2007 and 2017, there has been a 20% decrease of Black inmates compared to only a 13% decrease of White inmates.

Question 5

Crime isn’t an inequality - Analysis

Answer 5

• Arguably, this shows that although inequality exists when taking into consideration the issue of crime, there is some moves toward addressing inequality in the criminal justice system as less African- Americans have been imprisoned unnecessarily.

Question 6

Crime evaluation

Answer 6

• In evaluating to what extent the social inequality of crime exists in the U.S.A, it is clear that when considering the treatment particularly to those of Black ethnicity, it has become more apparent that inequality continues to exist in the criminal justice system of the U.S.A, even although the situation is improving with less incarcerations of Black Americans.

Question 7

Health is an inequality- explain + evidence

Answer 7

• One way in which there is social and economic inequality in the US is health.
• This is because there is no NHS in the USA which provides free healthcare, so health insurance has become a major inequality as it is very expensive for Americans to afford.
• An example of this is a 2019 study found that 2/3rds of individuals filing for bankruptcy cited medical costs as a key factor.

Question 8

Health is an inequality- analysis

Answer 8

• Arguably, this shows health is a social inequality as people are not able to afford basic healthcare and this then impacts the rest of their finances.

Question 9

Health isnt an inequality- explain + evidence

Answer 9

• However, it can be argued that social and economic inequality in the USA is becoming more equal as more people are receiving health insurance.
• This is because Acts have been brought in to help Americans afford their healthcare and put less pressure on them in terms of the amount of money they must spend on their health.
• An example of this is in 2018, 28 million Americans were uninsured, though this is down from the 46 million in 2012, before the Affordable Care Act came into effect.

Question 10

Health isnt an inequality - analysis

Answer 10

• Arguably, this shows if Americans became sick there are acts in place to help them cope with medical bills to ensure they did not fall into debt.

Question 11

Health - evaluation

Answer 11

• In evaluation, there are social and economic issues in the USA due to health but only to an extent. Whilst acts such as Obama Care have been created to lessen financial pressure on Americans in terms of being able to afford their healthcare. Nevertheless, some people can still go into debt due to large prices on medical bills as in 2019, 2/3rds of American citizens became bankrupt due to medical bills.

Question 12

Education - is an inequality

Answer 12

• One way that the USA experiences inequality is through education.
• This is largely caused by income, and ethnic minorities are the worst affected, this is reflected in the poor funding in schools.
• For example, in 2018 school districts serving the largest populations of Black American students received roughly $1,800 less per student in state and local funding than those serving the fewest Black American students, according to the Education Trust in 2018.

Question 13

Education - is an inequality Analysis

Answer 13

• Arguably, this shows there is inequality in education as Black Americans are not receiving the same local and state funding towards their education as White Americans as they are receiving roughly $2000 less.

Question 14

Education - isnt an inequality

Answer 14

• However, education inequality in the USA only exists to a certain extent.
• This is because Asian Americans tend to have a higher educational attainment than the White American majority.
• For example, about 54% of Asian Americans aged 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or higher as of 2019, according to bestcollages.com.

Question 15

Education - isnt an inequality Analysis

Answer 15

• Arguably this shows that not all ethnic minority groups experience great inequality in education in the USA as evidence shows that Asian Americans tend to do very well educationally as many leave high school to go onto further education and receive Bachelor’s degrees

Question 16

Education - Evaluation

Answer 16

• In evaluation, people from Ethnic minorities in the USA face socio-economic inequalities to an extent in the US, this is evident in the education sector.
• Whilst, Asian Americans have a high educational standard with more than half of Asian Americans having a level of higher education, showing that educational inequality is only true to a certain extent.
• Nevertheless, Black Americans receive less state and local education funding of nearly $2000 than White Americans in education.

Question 17

Low income - Is an inequality

Answer 17

• An economic inequality which exists in America is low Income which leads to poverty.
• This is as a result of stereotypes, that those who are part of Ethnic Minorities are more likely to take unskilled blue collared jobs than White Americans who are stereotyped to take white collared jobs, therefore creating a disparity in wage.
• For example, the median annual earnings of white Americans in 2022 was $55,000, whereas the median income among Black Americans was $38,000 in 2022, according to Statista.

Question 18

Low income - Is an inequality Analysis

Answer 18

• Arguably, this shows that Black Americans in the USA are more likely to receive a lower income than White Americans due to the jobs they’re stereotyped to do such as Blue collared jobs.

Question 19

Low income - Isn’t an inequality

Answer 19

• Furthermore, economic inequality can be seen where poor education is concentrated in impoverished areas.
• This means as a result lower income is received in these areas that then leads to poverty.
• For example, according to the government census bureau, the median weekly earnings in 2020 for those with less than a high school degree was $32,000 per year, whereas the average college graduate starting salary was around $58,000.

Question 20

Low income - Isn’t an inequality Analysis

Answer 20

• Arguably, this shows that there is a strong correlation between poverty and low salary as those who come from poverty can get stuck in a cycle and be unable to go onto get a job that has a high income thereby exacerbating inequality through education.

Question 21

Low income - Evaluation

Answer 21

• In evaluation it is evident that economic inequality exists in America as Black Americans are still stereotyped to word blue collar jobs, which can make them receive lower income leading possibly to poverty. Nevertheless, Black Americans are less likely to receive further education after high school so are evidently unable to escape the poverty cycle.

Question 22

Conclusion

Answer 22

• To conclude, social and economic inequality exists in the USA albeit with marginal improvements.
• In the social area of education inequality has clearly prevailed amongst Black Americans. Particularly the fact that they five roughly $1800 less education funding than White Americans.
• Nevertheless, Asian Americans buck the trend of inequality in minority groups due to the fact that in 2019, 54% of Asian Americans aged 25+ received a bachelor’s degree or higher.
• This picture is mirrored in the area of health where inequality has been determined as health insurance is very expensive and in 2019 2/3rds of individuals filing for bankruptcy citied medical costs a main cause.
• Nevertheless, acts have been brought into place to help Americans afford healthcare, in 2018, 28 million Americans were uninsured which is 18 million less than 2012.
• Yet in contrast economic inequalities seem to be more stark as low income is a stark problem due to stereotypes as median annual earnings for Black Americans was $38,360 compared to White Americans median annual earning of $55,855.
• Nevertheless, average college graduates had a starting salary of roughly $58,862.
• So, overall social and economic inequality does still exist in the US to an extent.