SOC 220 Week 1 Assignment Pressing Social Problems

Distribution of Wealth, Property, and Crime

Grand Canyon University: SOC 220

            It’s a strong opinion that distribution of wealth and property are top social issues in the United States of America, and I believe that crime is directly related to these social issues.  Crime is statistically committed by those in poverty, and thus less often by those who have wealth and property.  I aim to show that the distribution of wealth, poverty, and crime are three of the country’s most common social issues and that they are all related. 

Definition

            As privatization increases in America the rich get richer and the poor get well poorer.  As there become more wealthy people those wealthy people become wealthier often by profiting off of the middle and lower classes.  This in turn causes these classes to become less inclined to be move out of the middle or low incomes.  I believe that the social issue here is that the difference between the classes will only continue to grow and the low cannot eventually help them.  We see this with issues like our healthcare funding.  The next issue is poverty, and it seems perfectly obvious that poverty is connected to the distribution of wealth.  Poverty is also a common problem in America, and a growing problem in the world.  Poverty is an issue because families in poverty cannot often help themselves in financial problems.  From buying reliable transportation to healthcare, these families often come into rough times.  Last I figure that incarceration is a top issue in America and really throughout the world.  It is often a large issue in society from drugs to theft and beyond much of it stems from poverty.

“Poverty and crime have a very “intimate” relationship that has been described by experts from all fields, from sociologists to economists. The UN and the World Bank both rank crime high on the list of obstacles to a country’s development. This means that governments trying to deal with poverty often also have to face the issue of crime as they try to develop their country’s economy and society.”

Importance

            The issue of distribution of wealth is important to this country and the world for many reasons.  The foremost and apparent reason to me seems that the wealthy get wealthier and the poor get poorer thus making our second issue worse and contributing to our last issue.  I think its all related causing more crime over time.  As the following quote mentions, we can often see that those in the lower income brackets are pushed to crime for another alternative,

“Economic research suggests that individuals living in poverty face an increased risk of adverse outcomes, such as poor health and criminal activity, both of which may lead to reduced participation in the labor market.”

One plus one equals two

I realized as I was working on this paper that these problems I mention wouldn’t be major social problems on their own except that each connects to another.  We can even connect other social problems to the initial and route cause of poverty.  Poverty is caused by low paying jobs or the lack of work, or even the lack of proper educational opportunities.  It all adds up and a lead to some of the country’s other major social problems such as unequal education, health issues, and increased cost of living.  After reading a world bank article about crime, wealth, and poverty it all simply adds up to me and is clear that these are actually much more major problems than I had even originally thought.  Lower class groups often have higher crime rates those other groups as the World Bank article mentions (worldbank.org)

Conclusion

In conclusion the three major or most prominent social issues in America to me are poverty, crime and the root cause where the rich get richer causing the poor to get poorer.  I feel that the emergence of these issues came primarily from the wealthy controlling the vast majority of the country and the countries government.  We have wealthy lobbyists getting our government to do what they want and not what the masses want.  I feel that our country has pushed the lower classes to the point of no return, thus causing many of the issues I have mentioned.

References

Poverty and Crime: Breaking a Vicious Cycle of Discrimination. (n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2015, from http://www.poverties.org/poverty-and-crime.htmlDaresh, J. C. (2004). Beginning the assistant principalship: A practical guide for new school administrators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

(n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2015, from http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07343t.pdf

(n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2015, from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DEC/Resources/Crime&Inequality.pdf