Ensayo Economia E.U

English 101
Research Paper
Wealth inequality: the poor class.
12/06/11



 Historian James Truslow Adams coined the term "American dream" in his book "The Epic of America" as “ that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement...”. In the U.S history, there were times where the upper classtook a smaller part of the income wealth pay, so the middle class had the financial possibility of consuming more goods, therefore more jobs were created; in this way society grew faster. Society changed with technological advances, so there were big transformations of the economy, moving from a manufacturing based on economy to a service sector economy where information is selled and services areprovided, meaning that labor was replaced by technology. American workers depending on these kind of jobs were very affected, added to technological outsourcing, is the cheaper labor overseas, trade agreements,and foreign investment . The United States was once known as a land of equal opportunities for all of those who tried, however equality is not a word that describes the economic situationthat society is living at the present. The wealth distribution is more unequal than ever before. According to the 2010 Census data, the top one percent of the people in the U.S owns 43 percent of the total financial wealth of the country, while the bottom 80 percent survive with only with 7 percent. These numbers are sign that something is wrong with the economic system of the United States.
Generally, popular opinion favors cultural or individualistic explanations for poverty. There are some cultural assumptions about poor people such as they are lazy, uneducated by choice, irresponsible, substance abusers, and so on. However, there are structural factors that play an important rol in the economic development of the poor class. Factors like the economic, political and conditionsunder they are living don't always let them improve their situations. Free market economic theory, for example is based on faulty assumptions about human behavior, and it ignores the structural obstacles or workers' conditions. 
 One of the assumptions of the neoclassical economic theory is rationality, or “a single orientation for action”, where people and corporations are supposed to takerational decisions to achieve their goals. As explained by the author Erin Ehrenreich in her book "Nickel and Dimed" , “economic man, that great abstraction of economic science, is supposed to do whatever it takes, within certain limits, to maximize his economic advantage”. It is expected that workers behave as “marbles on an inclined plane”, meaning they will go where the better paying jobs are.What the theory doesn’t take into account is the role of habits, rituals and values in people’s behavior. Moreover, workers need to be well informed about their options in order to make rational decisions. However, low-wage workers and job seekers don’t always count with the necessary tools to get the information they need to choose the best option for them, or when companies intentionallywithhold information, and factors such as money taboo. Therefore, they cannot make rational decisions because they don’t have perfect information. 
Finally, the theory assumes that people and corporations act guided only by their own interests. The theory is ignoring the subjective aspects of action, values and affective attachments. People behavior is not predictable to opportunities for gain whenthere are other factors that play a role in decision making, for example their families, their geographical limitations, etcetera. All of these assumptions are problems for the low-wage work because they can’t optimize their earnings, making very hard for them to move forward and improve their lives.
 According to th Census Bureau data, American have become less likely to advance up the...