Feb
24
Class #8 Tina Jing Ru Shen
February 24, 2015 | Leave a Comment
This set of readings has sparked some mixed feelings for me, because one of the articles describe the “other side of the story,” despite some of its writing being romanticized. Strangely, I began to think of how the middle class suffers the same problems as the rich in Gelinas’ argument. Gelina’s tone in the writing implies that the poor are feeding off of the wealth that the rich graciously provides to the public. And Luhby’s restatement of the same solution that came up in previous readings we have read about raising taxes on higher income made me wonder: what does the middle class have to say about this ping pong battle between the rich and the poor?
First, I would like to comment on Gelina’s article on that it highlights the racial factors contributing to income inequality. Gelina states that White New Yorkers earn more than half of the city’s income, even though they occupy less than one-third of the local population. This is possible evidence that there is a relationship between income and racial inequality, that a person’s race can determine whether or not they can climb the social ladder, or get the top job. As Gelina concludes, Mayor De Blasio is planning to raise taxes on the rich. But now I have come to agree with a counterargument: Will taxing alleviate income inequality if there are racial discrimination in play? If racism is indeed a major role in keeping poor non-White New Yorkers at the bottom, what measures could we take to level this racial and economic inequality? As discussed in previous articles, and as I commented before, education seems to be a primary focus on pushing the poor upwards. But now I have begun to wonder if good education is sufficient to improve income inequality.
Additionally, Luhby’s article heavily focuses on how the education can improve the lives of the poor. Luhby’s side of the story seems more like a romanticized, gilded portrayal of how the rich charitably give opportunities to the poor through public services in libraries. Also, Luhby’s argument has some holes in it, since he inadvertently highlights the contrasting social impact between the rich and the poor. Luhby claims that as more wealthy people trickled into New York City, crime and public transit have improved. I interpreted this as beforehand, when New York was overtaken by violence and inefficiency, the poor had no say in alleviating conditions. However, the complaints from the rich have to be considered, and so the quality of New York has improved – thanks to the rich. I felt that Luhby’s argument that the rich’s presence in New York has alleviated the quality of public services ranging from transit to police can be bent the other way, further emphasizing disparities of social influence and income.
Luhby’s article was an interesting read, because I came to understand how the rich might feel that it is unfair for them to pay high taxes in addition to charity funds they may have provided to public services. The article also somehow led me to wonder how the middle class deals with income inequality. As discussed in previous readings, the middle class in the United States is shrinking, as most people are falling into the lower class. However, the middle class does not have the best of both worlds. In fact, it also has to pay high taxes, but not necessarily receive the same benefits as the poor. For example, Medicaid seems to be a big issue for the middle and upper class. Although these parties pay high taxes for their relatively or extremely high incomes compared to those of the impoverished, they cannot receive the same health benefits as the poor in programs such as Medicaid. This is just a sudden thought I had when reading further about benefits and taxes, it might be unrelated to this whole income inequality issue.
The diagrams showing incomes along subway routes is quite interesting, and it was nice to visually see the income disparities of New York City and how dramatic they are. But as Luhby implies in her writing, gentrification is prevalent, and the graphs from the New Yorker may change even more as neighborhoods such as Chinatown and Harlem are becoming wealthy White neighborhoods. This leads me to another issue, which is, income inequality may affect the cultural diversity of New York, as predominantly rich White people are taking over previously culturally rich areas, and pushing other ethnic groups to other boroughs.
