The Working Poor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Working Poor - Essay Example In a book written by Collins and Yeskel entitled â€Å"Economic Apartheid in America,† attention is focused on the widening gap between a few ultrawealthy individuals and the greater majority of people in the United States. The segregation spawns a culture of haves and have-nots. Those who struggle to attain a decent living wage for their families remain impoverished because the culture is skewed against them and fosters a poverty that is self-propagating. â€Å"This economic inequality comes from a mechanistic view of the world devoid of deep spiritual meaning, soul searching, and egalitarian human connection. It leaves little room for prioritizing fulfilling human relationships, nurturing the environment, or appreciating the sacred.† (Brettschneider, 2001) Despite the nation’s growing prosperity, real wages – that is, the money people can actually use from their paychecks – to stagnate or fall for more than half of the population. Inequality in wages between the highest and lowest paid workers is at its highest. The bottom 95 percent of the U.S. populace has less wealth than the top one percent of households. Seventy-five percent of workers have suffered some loss at work, such as loss of full-time employment, lack of retirement security, lack of health insurance, and loss of other similar benefits. 5. The United Nations Development Program reported in 1999 that the world’s 225 richest people have a combined wealth of $1 trillion, which is equivalent to the combined annual income of the world’s 2.5 billion poorest people. 6. The richest ten per cent of the world’s population receive about half (49.6%) of the total world income, while the bottom sixty percent (more than half) of the world’s population receive little more than one-tenth (13.9%) of the world’s income. In his book â€Å"The Working Poor†, David Shipler gave life