Sociology Assignment: Poverty and Income Inequality in the USA

This sociology essay examines the global societal problems of poverty and income inequality, particularly in the USA. It begins by defining poverty and income inequality, highlighting the disparity where a small percentage of the population controls the majority of financial resources. The essay explores the background of these issues, emphasizing the impact of income inequality on health, including malnutrition and lack of access to healthcare, and its effect on educational attainment. The essay then proposes solutions such as government investment in education, stricter regulations for employers regarding health insurance and pensions, and taxation policies. The validity and reliability of the evidence are evaluated, including peer-reviewed sources and government data. The essay concludes by restating the importance of addressing poverty and income inequality through investment in education, regulatory measures, and taxation, ultimately aiming to improve societal well-being.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Poverty and Income Inequality
Introduction
Poverty is a term that is referred to the lack of financial resources to meet the basic needs of an
individual. When it comes to income inequality it refers to the extreme disparity of distribution
in income in the society, where, majority of the financial resources are in the hand of a small
percentage of the population. Income inequality can be considered as a major cause behind high
poverty rate in a nation. When it comes to USA, the income disparity is so high that 10 percent
of America earns 9 times more than the rest 90 percent. The most plausible impact of income
inequality and poverty is its effect on health and social anxiety. Poor people and people with low
income find it highly difficult to obtain effective healthcare and to have appropriate diet, housing
as well as sanitation. This in turn imposes negative impact on their physical as well as mental
health. Along with this, income disparity puts individuals in a system that raises competitiveness
and pressures, leading to bad health and other adverse outcomes. The government should invest
in educating the poor population and human capital in order to enhance individual wealth and
improve the labor force. Along with these strict regulations for employers compelling them to
provide health insurance and pension to low wage employees and taxation for higher income
generating class will help the government to reduce and eventually eradicate poverty.
Background
While poverty is considered to be a major social issue for a prolonged amount of time,
more recently researchers are considering income inequality, irrespective of poverty as the major
factors that is leading to health and social problem. According to the USA census Bureau, in the
year 2018, the top 20 percent of the population has earned approximately 52 percent of the total

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USA income (Bureau. 2020). Amongst this, while the top 20 percent have earned 23 percent of
the total income, the bottom 20 percent has earned only 3.1 percent of the total nation’s income.
These are leading to the following social problems.
First of all, poverty and unequal income is taking a toll over the health security of the
poor people. Poverty as a result of lower income is resulting malnutrition amongst people with
lower income. Bailey et al. (2017) stated that “Adults at the highest adjusted income have higher
micronutrient intakes and lower risk of inadequacy than those with lower incomes.” Malnutrition
is imposing negative impact on the health condition of poor people. Along with this, majority of
the employees who works at low wage in USA, UK and several other nations are found to be
lacking health insurance or pension plans from the employers. As a result of this, a considerable
amount of population is unable access appropriate healthcare service while needed due to
insufficient amount of financial resources. This in turn has created healthcare inequality which
has enhanced the cost of medical care in the nations. Not only this, lack of financial resources
compels poor people to access the emergency care service in USA for preventive care. They
ended up using the emergency room as their primary care physician. The hospitals passed this
cost along to Medicaid.
Another major reason behind considering poverty and unequal income as a societal issue
is that it lowers the educational accessibility and performance. Lack of adequate financial
resources makes it difficult for parents with lower income to provide sufficient educational
supports to offspring. In majority of the cases, poor people and people with lower income
consider education as secondary needs, the primary needs being food, shelter and health,
considering the fact that a considerable amount of the population struggle to meet the basic needs

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due to the income inequality, it becomes difficult for people to invest the requirement amount of
money for educational purpose. For instance, in USA, the percentage of African American
population below the poverty line is much higher compared to the white population. As a result
of this, the percentage of dropouts of black students is much more compared to that of the white
students. According to Brosseau (2018), “poverty does have a substantial and significant effect
on education performance, and that this effect is more pronounced for Black and Hispanic
students when compared to White students.”
Solutions
In order to deal with the social issues associated with poverty and income inequality,
government of several nations have incorporated rues and regulation that will help them to assure
redistribution of wealth. According to Hidalgo et al. (2019), providing effective support to the
bottom two fifth population who are the worst victim of the income inequality, with effective
access to education possess the potential to reduce poverty and income equality. For this, both
local and federal government should work together to provide financial support through free
access to education, scholarships and educational loans so that students from lower economic
background can access higher education. Additionally, strict rules and regulations to prevent
racism and discrimination in academic institution for preventing dropouts and to prevent
discrimination and favoritism in employment needs to be implemented by the government. The
chief reason behind this is, enhancement in educational qualification will enhance the chance of
employment. High rate of employment in designated position in different industries will lower
poverty rate and income inequality in the society.

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Another effective measure that can be taken by the government includes enhancing the
tax on the top five percent of the population with more than 23 percent of the overall income of
the nation. Along with this taxation on the bottom 20 percent of society should be reduced. This
discrepancy in taxation will help the government to gradually ensure income equality between
the members of the society (Gruber & McKnight, 2016). However, considering the fact that it is
a time taking solution, policy should be implemented by the government on an emergency basis
so that the transition is gradual and healthy for the economy overall (taxfoundation.org, 2020).
In additional to the above discussed solution, another major steps that needs to be taken
by the local and federal government of the nation is to impose strict regulation on employers so
that health insurance and pension can be offered to the employers with low wage. Considering
the fact that access to healthcare in nations like UK and USA is getting expensive over time,
support from employers as well as local government is highly crucial to eradicate the huge gap in
healthcare accessibility and mortality rate between the wealthy population and the poor
population (Fossen & König, 2015).
Evaluation of evidence
The evidences used in this paper are valid and reliable and are without bias. Majority of
the sources used by the researcher for this paper is peer reviewed which in turn makes the both
valid and reliable. However, a few resources have been used for this study that can be considered
as popular and relevant sources of information.
For instance the source Bailey et al., (2017) has been used by the researcher in order to
points out the impact of poverty and income inequality lack of nutrients leading to adverse health
of the people with bellow poverty line.

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Another source of information, namely Bureau, U. (2020), has been used by the researchers in
order to incorporate authentic and relevant statistics to the study associated with the research
issue. Considering the fact that the data has been taken from government website it can be
pointed out that the data used is highly authentic in nature. Another governmental site that has
bee used by the researcher for this report includes the taxfoundation.org, 2020. This
governmental website has been used in this study to propose the solution of raising tax for people
with higher income and reduce the same for people with lower income rate.
The article Brosseau, (2018), has been used in this research in order to point out the
discrimination against the poverty stricken population on the context of provision of free meal.
The given table clearly points out that while free meal provided to the white population n USA is
36.29 percent, American Indian, Asian and the black population obtains lowest amount of free
meal from the government.
When it comes to the biasness seen in any of the paper used, it can be pointed out the
researchers has not detected any kind of biasness in the paper used. Majority of the paper used
includes both primary and secondary research method in order to ensure the accuracy of the
information scattered. The most crucial strengths of the papers that have been used in this study

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are their authenticity as well as relevancy with the research topic. However, one of the major
weaknesses may include failure of providing alternative view points.
Ethical outcome
From the above discussion it can be clearly understood that it is highly crucial to reduce
the huge gap in income that persists between the members of the society in order to ensure a
better health outcomes of the bellow poverty line population of the society. The solutions that
has been proposed to reduce and eventually eradicate poverty and income inequality includes
provision of financial resources for educating the poverty stricken children, enhancement of
taxes for the higher income population and reduction in taxes for the lower income population
and finally implementing strict regulation for employers so that heath insurance and pension can
be provided to low wage employees (Fossen & König, 2015). The positive outcome that is
expected from the first solution is enhancement employment rate resulting in enhancement of
income. Increased income will not only ensure enhancement of nutrition rich food, but will also
ensure a healthier lifestyle (Pohl, Clark & Thomas, 2017). Another positive income includes low
mortality rate and enhanced lifespan. The negative outcomes that are lack of implementation of
the required policy and provision of required support can be avoided through strict and periodic
government interference.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be clearly understood that in order to eradicate the
social issues associated with poverty and income inequality, the government should invest in
education and human capital in order to enhance individual wealth and improve the labor force.
Along with these strict regulations for employers compelling them to provide health insurance

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and pension to low wage employees and taxation for higher income generating class will help the
government to reduce and eventually eradicate poverty.

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References
Bailey, R. L., Akabas, S. R., Paxson, E. E., Thuppal, S. V., Saklani, S., & Tucker, K. L. (2017).
Total usual intake of shortfall nutrients varies with poverty among US adults. Journal of
nutrition education and behavior, 49(8), 639-646. Retrieved from:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2016.11.008
Brosseau, R. (2018). The Effects of Poverty on Education in Colorado. Retrieved from:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carlos_Eggers/publication/335893280_Unequal_out
comes_or_unequal_chances_a_deeper_analysis_of_the_effects_of_inequality_on_crime_
and_possible_misspecifications/links/5d829ec3458515cbd1983f6d/Unequal-outcomes-
or-unequal-chances-a-deeper-analysis-of-the-effects-of-inequality-on-crime-and-
possible-misspecifications.pdf
Bureau, U. (2020). Income and Poverty in the United States: 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2020, from
1retrived from: https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2019/demo/p60-266.html
Fossen, F.,M., & König, J. (2015) : Public health insurance andentry into self-employment,
SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research, No. 733,Deutsches Institut für
Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin
Gruber, J., & McKnight, R. (2016). Controlling health care costs through limited network
insurance plans: Evidence from Massachusetts state employees. American Economic
Journal: Economic Policy, 8(2), 219-50. Retrieved from:
https://www.nber.org/papers/w20462.pdf
Hidalgo, R. L., Hidalgo, A., Ortiz, R., Polo, S. D., & Ávila, S. E. (2019). The Position of Mexico
in the World: An Opportunity to Eradicate Poverty and Inequality Through Human
Capital Implementation–Globalization in Mexico, Poverty and Inequality, Normativity,

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Poverty Measurement, Educational Reform. In Strategy and Superior Performance of
Micro and Small Businesses in Volatile Economies (pp. 239-255). IGI Global. Retrieved
from: https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/the-position-of-mexico-in-the-world/221192
Pohl, R. V., Clark, K., & Thomas, R. (2017). Minimum wages and healthy diet. Available at
SSRN 2892894. Retrived from:
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/87239/1/MPRA_paper_87239.pdf
taxfoundation.org. (2020). Summary of the Latest Federal Income Tax Data, 2018 Update.
Retrieved 3 April 2020, from https://taxfoundation.org/summary-latest-federal-income-
tax-data-2018-update/