Blog 13: Evening the Odds

In the article Evening the Odds, the author, Nicholas Lemann, like many of the other articles I have blogged about is discussing the issue of how the income inequality that exists in the United States and the world is getting larger. The inequality of income and wealth has been the most striking change in the past generation. In 1979 the one percent that the Occupy Wallstreet movement has been protesting against earned nine percent of all personal income. Today, the one percent earns over a quarter of all personal income. And with the recession that recently hit, it mostly affected those at the bottom of the inequality gap, but the recovery from the recession has hardly helped those in the bottom. The author points out that the people in the bottom percentile of earnings have more votes for politics and that if they want to see a difference in this then they need to take action. But they have yet to do this. There is no clear sign that the Occupy Wallstreet movement is going to be a major issue, like most would hope for, in the upcoming election.

I feel that in order for the people of the bottom spectrum of the ninety-nine percent would want to try to make a stand for themselves and take more action to get more involved in the politicians running. I feel that by supporting politicians that they will in return support the people’s needs. Those people’s needs would be those of the ninety-nine percent of the population. The politicians are the one that are really going to have the majority of control over laws and social programs that will support the people.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/04/23/120423crat_atlarge_lemann?mbid=gnep