Distribution of Wealth and Income in the United States

The current distribution of wealth and income in the United States has many people wondering what the underlying reasons are behind this growing inequality. First we must recognize the differences between wealth and income. Income is the amount of money brought into a household from various sources during a given period. Wealth is the current value of everything that a person owns subtracted from current debts.  According to page 190 of our Sociology: The Essentials book the wealthiest 1 percent own 33 percent of all net worth; the bottom 80 percent control only 16 percent. The top 10 percent also own 88 percent of all stock; the bottom 40 percent own less than 1 percent of total stock holdings.

These numbers represent the vast inequality of wealth in the U.S. In fact according to our book, the United States is one of the most "unequal" nations in the world. So now you might be asking why is there so much inequality? Due to the current economic situation in the United States, more and more people are finding it harder to create their own wealth.  Society is making it difficult to find good paying jobs as well as harder to afford a college education. Therefore most of the wealth in this society is inherited. There are people who make their way into the high class by their own success, however this is rare. Race also is a factor when looking at the current wealth distribution in the United States. Our book says that for every dollar of wealth held by White Americans, Black Americans have only 26 cents. During difficult times having the ability to draw on assets means those with better financially stability can better withstand these economic hardships.