Mar
19
Blog Post #9 Andrew Chen
March 19, 2015 | Leave a Comment
The Forbes article brings up a very good point on whether the masses complain about income inequality. Sure, Obama talks about it, and even labels it as “the defining challenge of our time.” But is this really the case, when the average person is not speaking their mind on the topic? If there are more people from the working class and under addressing the issue, perhaps there would be a more active approach to resolving the gap.
The real income for the average household has actually increased 36.7%, contrary to popular belief that income for the average family has stagnated. But does the numbers Forbes spits out to us can’t be argued, and we either have to take it as fact, or refute it entirely. Because we are not qualified to provide numbers of our own, it’s hard to say whether we can argue against the number provided for us. However, the article does state that a CBO study found an increase of income for the average household to be 62%, which makes me question the variables and calculations used.
The second myth of it’s not their own fault that the bottom earners are there is refuted. It’s stated that one will tend to be a bottom earner if one has children without a husband (therefore labeling single parent households), and especially if one isn’t working at all. “These are age old truths.” I feel that the point of this paragraph could have been put in kinder words, but as blunt as it is, it’s true. Also, like many other articles before, Forbes points out that raising the minimum wage will not fix the inequality. Income is also stated to not be the best measure of well-being, as one can always find happiness in life.
Yet I would also like to bring up the plight of the service industry, and how little servers earn as a base per hour. Living entirely off tips, servers have to deal with fluctuating tips, but the cost of living does not fluctuate. Many of those working in the service industry are women, as well as mothers. However, but living in New York City generates costs due to rent, childcare, school, transportation, and food – and these paychecks are not able to keep up.
A possible solution for the current tipped minimum wage is to refocus our efforts into placing women in leadership roles within the service industry. Many women aren’t even applying at all to say, a manager position, but rather as a part-time server position. Because the current cost of living exceeds what servers make as of now, a change is needed in order to relieve them of the burdens and stress they currently go through.
