Effectiveness Of Government Responses To Socio-economic Inequality Flashcards
1
Q
Socio-Economic Inequality Response - introduction
A
- A very apparent issue in the USA is social and economic inequality.
- This has been an ongoing issue for years despite the United States being one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
- In 2018 the OECD ranked the USA’s GINI coefficient at 0.39 which was judged as ‘dangerously high’ as it highlighted inequality among US citizens was significantly higher than comparable countries such as Germany, Norway and even Britain.
- This essay will determine the extent to which the US Government has been successful in tackling the issue of inequality by considering areas such as unemployment, income, healthcare and education.
- Yet it will be argued that while some significant inroads have been made in tackling inequality, the US government has clearly not resolved the issue of inequality and is therefore only successful to an extent.
2
Q
Employment - govt. tackling was successful
A
- One way that the government is successful in tackling economic inequalities is through employment.
- This is because they introduced the Welfare to work action in 1997, which is still going on today and greatly decreased unemployment by motivating Americans to seek jobs.
- Evidence of this is that the unemployment levels dropped from 5.9% in 1990 to 3.7% in 2019.
3
Q
Employment - govt. tackling was successful analysis
A
- Arguably, this shows that encouragement from the government for citizens to find employment has resulted in a smaller percentage of unemployed Americans across the US making the act somewhat successful.
4
Q
Employment - govt. tackling wasn’t successful
A
- However, the welfare act in tackling economic inequalities through employment has not been completely successful.
- This can be seen in the number of American citizens working below minimum wage.
- For example, in 2019 Bloomberg published that 44% of Americans were working in minimum wage jobs.
5
Q
Employment - govt. tackling wasn’t successful Analysis
A
- Arguably, this shows that the welfare act isn’t fully successful as just under half of the American population is working in minimum wage jobs and therefore are not receiving a strong income.
6
Q
Employment - Evaluation
A
- In evaluation, the government has been successful in tackling economic inequality across the USA to a certain extent.
- Whilst the Welfare to Work act which was introduced in the early nineties reduced employment by over 2%.
- Nevertheless, Bloomberg published that just under 45% of American workers were still in low paying jobs in 2019. Which shows that even though less people are out of work the pay may not be good enough.
7
Q
Education - govt. responses successful
A
- One way that the US government is successful in tackling social inequality through education is the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which was introduced in 2015.
- This was successful because many young people have graduated high school in the USA since the Act was introduced.
- An example of this is according to ThinkImpact, 3,650,000 students graduated from high school in 2020.
8
Q
Education - govt. responses successful Analysis
A
- Arguably, these statistics show the ESSA Act has encouraged students across America to strive to graduate from high school to achieve greater education.
9
Q
Education - govt. responses not successful
A
- However, there is evidence of limited government success in tackling social inequality in terms of education.
- This means it can be argued that the ESSA act has not been fully successful as there was a large cut in education funding by ex-President Donald Trump’s administration.
- Evidence of this is according to the Centre for American Progress in 2019, there was a $4 billion cut in education funding.
10
Q
Education - govt. responses not successful not successful
A
- Arguably, this shows the government is restricting the tackling of socio-economic inequality as many schools are now underfunded and not getting the appropriate facilities, they need to help their students succeed.
11
Q
Education - Evaluation
A
- In Evaluation, the government has been successful in tackling social inequality across the USA to a certain extent.
- Whilst the ESSA act has been successful in some regards, such as over 3 million US students graduating in 2020 across America.
- Nevertheless, the Republican Party cut education funding across America by $4 billion which has worsened the quality of education across the US.
12
Q
Healthcare - govt responses successful
A
- One way that the government is successful in tackling socio-economic inequalities is through healthcare by introducing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in 2010.
- This can be seen as successful as millions of dollars have been saved on medical benefits.
- Evidence of this is that it become illegal for health insurance companies to arbitrarily cancel your health insurance just because you are sick according to CBS.
13
Q
Healthcare - govt responses successful Analysis
A
- Arguably this shows people’s basic human rights are being acknowledged and are no longer being neglected and are being taken into consideration by Obama Care so they now have sufficient help to receive health insurance.
14
Q
Healthcare - govt responses not successful
A
- However, Obamacare in that the government is successful in tackling socio-economic inequalities has not been as successful.
- This can be seen as because of this save in medical benefits many health premiums have raised their prices.
- An example of this is as from 2013 to 2017 the medical premiums has doubled according to ASPE and then approximately 18,000 dollars.
15
Q
Healthcare - govt responses not successful analysis
A
- Arguably this shows that Obamacare made it harder for people who were wanting premium health benefits to get them as to the costs increases for premium help.
