1. What is the definition of a capital income phenomenon?
2. It was difficult to follow the format of the article. The explanations for each figure were not directly under them. It was difficult to read about the figure and then scroll down all the way to the figure.
3. The author’s reference to the Gilded Age was confusing. His reference should be explained in more detail to help the reader understand.
Capitalism is not the answer to fix our nation’s income inequality. The author who wrote the response to Saez’s article believes that capitalism is the only way to build wealth. However this is not the case. The government is reliable to fix the income inequality in our nation. The government’s Internal Revenue Service produces statistics to monitor the income levels. These statics are not only high quality but final. The releasing of these statistics is usually a slow process and can be up to 2 years behind. It is extremely crucial that these statistics be produced more efficiently because therefore the income inequality issue could be solved without Capitalism. These statistics can be produced more efficiently if tax returns, information returns, and filing extension forms were all formed together a year earlier than usual. Income wage distribution could be more efficient if the quarterly wage income data that was gathered by unemployment insurance systems was systematically analyzed.
1) Why do you think Americans are most likely to indicate that they belong to the middle class? Please refer to Andrew Dugan’s “Americans Most Likely to Say they Belong to Middle Class” in your response.
I think that Americans are most likely to indicate that they belong to the middle class because of the influence from the President of the United States. As stated in Andrew Dugan’s article, President Barack Obama uses the term “a mandate to help middle-class families and families that are working hard to try to get into the middle class. I believe this has a lot to do with why American’s identify with the middle class. If American’s identify with the middle class, they feel as if they will receive the most help from the government. President Obama talks the most about helping the middle class than other classes. If he talked about the helping the upper class Americans, more Americans would identify with this because they would feel as if they are receiving the most help.
2) Why or how are the poor invisible in Michael Harrington’s essay? Please provide a quote or direct examples from his text.
According to Michael Harrington’s essay, the poor are invisible because they are not seen by the tourist. Harrington writes about a traveler that comes to the Appalachian mountains, and sees a run-down house. The tourist thinks that the poor living in this house are truly lucky because they don’t live with the tension of the middle class. The tourist will never really know that the people in that house are undereducated, underprivileged, lack medical, and they are treated like outcasts in the city life. The tourist will never really know how the poor live, therefore they will always be invisible.
3) What initial inferences can you draw looking at the data in Emmanuel Saez’s “Income Inequality Is At An All-Time High: STUDY.” How does this relate to or contrast with your understanding of what it means to be middle class
After looking at the Data in Emmanual Saez’s “Income Inequality Is At An All-Time High: STUDY” I realized that this relates to what it means to be in the middle class. The income inequality between the classes is at an all time high. The data shows that the top 1% of classes had an income growth which means more Americans still identify with the middle class. Their income has not grown.
In the first chapter of “Eat,Pray,Love” the author describes a scene of herself in Rome. She begins the scene with sharing her inner thoughts by saying “I wish Giovanni would kiss me”. I like this way to start a scene because it shows what shes feeling but also lets us know there is another person in the scene in a creative way. She then goes on to explain how she and Giovanni met in Rome. She describes in great detail the setting of the internet cafe they were both at when they locked eyes. She talks about the location of the cafe, how it’s right across from a sexy merman statue blowing into a shell. I felt as if I could almost picture the statue in my mind as if I had scene it for myself. The author incorporates reflection because she talks about how much Giovanni means to her and how much of an impact he has made on her life. The author also includes conversations between herself and Giovanni. These conversations helped to understand how they both feel about each other. I think the author has a unique writing style by including a lot of inner thoughts and great detail.
kahummel 