The United States Wealth Inequality Gap - 1369 Words

The number of children who are living in poverty have decreased for the first time in almost ten years. The Census Bureau reported a 0.5 percent decrease of Americans living in poverty from 2012 to 2013. Poverty is among the country’s contemporary social problems in the Twenty-First Century. According to the Census Bureau, 45.3 million people were categorized as living in poverty in 2013. To address contemporary social problems like poverty, one must take an in depth look at the reasons why there are so many people dealing with poverty and the challenges that arise from trying to escape it. The United States wealth inequality gap is one of the largest gaps in the world. According to the article Causes of Poverty by Anup Shah, â€Å" Almost†¦show more content†¦Poverty began by the oppressing powerful inhabitants creating trades in which the non-powerful inhabitants could not benefit. Even before currency, when barter was the main median of exchange, those who could hunt or gather better than others were the ones who survived. Their mentality of obtaining the most and buying the most stuck. They became the ones with the most currency and eventually their descendants obtained this â€Å"gene† of always wanting more. Scientists have debated if poverty is genetic and if there is some sort of characteristic that a person has that could influence their want for riches or desire to accumulate more currency. According to the University of Chicago Press, â€Å" there is a causal effect of genetic diversity on economic success, positing that too much or too little genetic diversity constrains development.† They believe that â€Å"the level of genetic diversity (heterozygosity) present in a population causes long-lasting effects on economic development.† They argue that if there is more genetic diversity in a population, there can be uneven distribution of economic development. Authors Quamrul Ashraf and Oded Galor of Brown Universit y believe that high levels of genetic heterozygosity increase â€Å"the likelihood of incoordination, distrust, and reduces cooperation and disrupts the socio-economic order. Greater population diversity is thus interpreted as being associated with lower