Tuesday, February 28, 2017
March 1st Blog
Both essays that i read "Why the Rich are Getting Richer" and "The Upside of Income Inequality" Were useful in their own way. Both spoke upon the substantial difference in Economic growth and income inequality throughout out America, which then relates to the world. The Article "The Upside of Income Inequality" centers its argument of why the gap in income is some great around education. The authors Gary Becker and Kevin M. Murphy believe that because some Americans went further in getting their education, by attending college, they was able to make a better income from the investment in having an degree. It's a proven statistic that in recent years a person with a college education earned seventy percent more money than a person with a high school education or lower, and a person with a graduate degree earned about one-hundred percent more. The essay "Why the Rich are Getting Richer" is just as useful, it also claims that education is key in fixing the income gap but in a different way. The essay says that we as people are in different boats; one is sinking rapidly, one sinking more slowly, and the third one rising more steadily. These boats would refer to jobs that are being lost substantially to machines, people in other countries, and people who have a lower education than others. These essays are very useful in how they give a direct reasoning of the income gap, even if this explanation isn't favored by everyone, it still causes you to evaluate and think about the reasoning behind them. They are also useful in giving areas of decline and rise in jobs that would be helpful in people trying to come from the bottom to the top. The communication techniques in these articles varied in how "Why the Rich are Getting Richer" they explained by using the boat methods and going through the various career fields; in "The Upside of Income Inequality" the authors communicate by using percents more and using graphs that show the statistics a little more effectively. In the end both essays revolved around one solution, education.
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I Enjoyed both essays, and found both authors points of view useful. However, I would like to focus my comment on the communication methods used by each of the authors individually and how effective I believe that they were. Robert Reich’s essay “Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer” focuses on the negatives trends of income inequality, and he does this primarily by giving examples from the past and informing the reader of how things have changed. One of the many examples of this can be seen when he discusses AT&T’s multiple changes in routine phone producers, and while I see what the author was attempting to do by using this method of communicating his ideas I don’t feel it was as effective as it could have been because at times it seemed his references to the past were done out of a fondness for the way things used to be. Much like previous generations reminisce by saying “Back in my day..” too often Reich’s points gave me that same feeling. Whereas the method used by Gary Becker and Kevin Murphy in their essay, “The Upside of Income Inequality” was one that based its entire argument on the statistics and facts of today. This made their essay come across as much more credible and much less bias. They effectively communicated a side of an argument that is almost never mentioned and in doing so still managed to back up every aspect with evidence rather than a simply reflection. Becker and Murphy’s essay felt like its arguments held enough backing to stand on their own, while I felt Reich’s arguments were too reliant on examples from the past, and were not communicated as well.
ReplyDeleteI feel that both essays are useful in their very own way. Both stem their part of their argument on education however one more than the other. Such as in “Why The Rich are Getting Richer” , where its more about the other reasons for the income gap including education. I agree that when you said that they give direct reasoning for the income gap. However, I feel that one is more solely based on bias and the other on education. Seeing as in the essay they talk about how we are losing jobs to the machines, people in other countries , and those who have lower education. I feel like their tone is more for trying to blame everybody else except for ourselves and making that the big reason for the gap. Unlike in “The Upside of Income Inequality” where they give more statistics on what getting an college education against high school education, is the real reason for the income gap. I feel as this is more useful in the sense that it gives us numbers that can actually be understood and proven. Rather than going on the bias that it is much of educations faults but other peoples fault.
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ReplyDeleteBoth essays address the problem of inequality from the aspect of education. Robert Reich, author of "Why the Rich are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer" thinks the problem is the outsourcing of jobs to other countries taking away jobs from the uneducated in America. Reich also discusses the value of american business experience in the mentoring of other countries. Gary Becker and Kevin Murphy discuss the payoffs of a higher education, correlating with Reich on the subject. Uneducated jobs are being outsourced and the value of american educated input coaching is being exported to other countries; follow the job market trends. America has no need for uneducated work and other countries value education in mentoring while also college graduates getting payed more; both points indicate education as the catalyst in repairing America's inequality gap. Both employ the use of statistics and dates to achieve accuracy and credibility in persuading the audience that education is the problem. The graphs used by Murphy and Becker are easy to read and a visual representation is always beneficial. Reich uses specific examples of companies to show the shift of labor in America to lower compensating countries; evidence easily accessed. Both the article and essay address the problem in the same way using different methods to appeal to the reader.
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