Editor's Note

2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. i-iii

In this election year, 2004, people are grappling with the various forces that make up these United States. What forces encourage inclusion and which exclusion? Who is to be included and who excluded? Is this to be a country with wide discrepancies between the rich and the poor? Is this to be a country where public education is poorly funded and a good education depends upon private resources? Are we going to forget that discrimination on the basis of gender, race, ethnic origin, and economic status still exists and needs to be perpetually, vigilantly addressed? There is a deep division in the country over the proper and fair use of our resources that constitutes concern in all our citizens

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
OLIVER P. HAUSER ◽  
GORDON T. KRAFT-TODD ◽  
DAVID G. RAND ◽  
MARTIN A. NOWAK ◽  
MICHAEL I. NORTON

AbstractFour experiments examine how lack of awareness of inequality affect behaviour towards the rich and poor. In Experiment 1, participants who became aware that wealthy individuals donated a smaller percentage of their income switched from rewarding the wealthy to rewarding the poor. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants who played a public goods game – and were assigned incomes reflective of the US income distribution either at random or on merit – punished the poor (for small absolute contributions) and rewarded the rich (for large absolute contributions) when incomes were unknown; when incomes were revealed, participants punished the rich (for their low percentage of income contributed) and rewarded the poor (for their high percentage of income contributed). In Experiment 4, participants provided with public education contributions for five New York school districts levied additional taxes on mostly poorer school districts when incomes were unknown, but targeted wealthier districts when incomes were revealed. These results shed light on how income transparency shapes preferences for equity and redistribution. We discuss implications for policy-makers.


2019 ◽  
pp. 153-170
Author(s):  
Mary Jo Bane

Utilizing National Congregations Study data, this chapter paints a demographic portrait of American Catholic parishes in which Latinos are underrepresented and the affluent overrepresented, compared to the overall self-identified Catholic population. As the United States grows increasingly diverse racially, and as the gap between the rich and the poor grows, American Catholic parishes are also highly segregated economically and ethnically. Indeed, Latinos and the wealthy are significantly more segregated by parish than they are by neighborhood. With ethnic and economic segregation closely tied, the Catholic parish landscape is increasingly composed of rich white parishes and poor Latino parishes. The chapter grapples with implications of this empirical reality, along with potential solutions.


Author(s):  
Carol Graham

This chapter goes on to ask who still believes in the American Dream. It begins with a review of what we know about the relationship between inequality, well-being, and attitudes about future mobility. It summarizes what we know from survey data on attitudes about inequality and opportunity in the United States, and then places those attitudes in the context of those in other countries and regions, based on new data and analysis with a focus on individuals' beliefs in the role of hard work in future success. Evidence suggests that the American Dream is very unevenly shared across socioeconomic cohorts. The poor and the rich in the United States lead very different lives, with the former having a much harder time looking beyond day-to-day struggles and associated high levels of stress, while the latter is able to pursue much better futures for themselves and their children, with the gaps between the two likely to increase even more in the future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Vasika Hananti ◽  
Bambang Subandrijo

Abstract: Harvey J. Sindima observed Liberation Theology as it flourished in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the United States. The social situation in that society has some similarities in Luke's community. According to Philip Francis Esler's research, Luke's theology seeks to answer the social situation in Luke's community, especially regarding the relationship between the rich and the poor. This study aims to review Sindima's review of Liberation Theology based on Philip Francis Esler's thoughts on the relationship between rich and poor in Luke's Gospel. In Sindima's writings, the involvement of the rich has not been found as an effort to minimize the suffering of the poor. In this study, the author uses an analytical method. The result is that the good news for the poor in Liberation Theology is in line with the good news in Luke's Gospel. Moreover, in Luke's Gospel the liberation of the poor is not only the responsibility of the poor themselves as in the Theology of Liberation in Sindima's description, but also the responsibility of the rich as part of a sharing community.  Abstrak: Harvey J. Sindima mengamati Teologi Pembebasan yang berkembang di Amerika Latin, Afrika, Asia, dan Amerika Serikat. Situasi sosial dalam masyarakat tersebut memiliki beberapa kesamaan dalam komunitas Lukas. Menurut penelitian Philip Francis Esler, teologi Lukas berupaya menjawab situasi sosial dalam komunitas Lukas, terutama menyangkut hubungan orang kaya dan orang miskin. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk meninjau uraian Sindima tentang Teologi Pembebasan berdasarkan pemikiran Philip Francis Esler berkenaan dengan hubungan orang miskin dan kaya dalam Injil Lukas. Dalam tulisan Sindima masih belum ditemukan keterlibatan orang kaya sebagai upaya meminimalisir penderitaan orang miskin. Dalam penelitian ini, penulis menggunakan metode analitis. Hasil tinjauan ini adalah bahwa kabar baik bagi orang miskin dalam Teologi Pembebasan sejalan dengan pemberitaan kabar baik dalam Injil Lukas. Lebih dari itu, dalam Injil Lukas pembebasan terhadap orang miskin bukan hanya menjadi tanggung jawab orang miskin itu sendiri sebagaimana dalam Teologi Pembebasan dalam uraian Sindima, tetapi juga merupakan tanggung jawab orang kaya sebagai bagian dari komunitas yang saling berbagi.


Author(s):  
Michael Sherraden ◽  
Lissa Johnson ◽  
Margaret M. Clancy ◽  
Sondra G. Beverly ◽  
Margaret Sherrard Sherraden ◽  
...  

Since 1991, a new policy discussion has arisen in the United States and other countries, focusing on building assets as a complement to traditional social policy based on income. In fact, asset-based policy already existed (and still exists) in the United States, with large public subsidies. But the policy is regressive, benefiting the rich far more than the poor. The goal should be a universal, progressive, and lifelong asset-based policy. One promising pathway may be Child Development Accounts beginning at birth, with greater public deposits for the poorest children. If every child had an account, then eventually this could grow into a universal public policy across the life course.


2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mawuli Gaddah ◽  
Alistair Munro ◽  
Peter Quartey

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the incidence of public education subsidies in Ghana. Since the late 1990s, Ghana’s government has increasingly recognized human capital as key to alleviating poverty and income inequality, causing dramatic increases of government expenditures to the education sector. At the same time user fees have been introduced in higher education while basic education is being made progressively free. The question then is, whether these spending increases have been effective in reaching the poor and to what extent? What factors influence the poor’s participation in the public school system? Design/methodology/approach – The authors address the key issues by employing both the standard benefit incidence methods and the willingness-to-pay method. Findings – The results give a clear evidence of progressivity with consistent ordering: pre-schooling and primary schooling are the most progressive, followed by secondary, and then tertiary. Own price and income elasticities are higher for private schools than public schools and for secondary than basic schools. Practical implications – Given the liquidity constraints African governments face yet there is the need to improve the human capacity of the countries, this study offers solution to how to optimally allocate the educational budget. Originality/value – The use of policy simulations to ascertain the incidence of public spending on education is innovative as far as previous studies in Africa is concerned.


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