Name:
Article of the Week – Due 10/13/14
Part 1: Reading and question development
Directions: As you read the article, think of questions you could ask to further/expand
your understanding of the content of this article. Go to top of the screen, select InsertNew Comment
Note: This week’s AoW is two different articles, both addressing poverty.
85 richest people own as much as bottom half of population, report says
Source: Jim Puzzanghera/Los Angeles Times, January 20, 2014
The 85 richest people on Earth have the same amount of wealth as the bottom half
of the population, according to a new report that highlights growing income inequality as
political and business leaders gather for the annual World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland.
Those wealthy individuals are a small part of the richest 1% of the population,
which combined owns about 46% of global wealth, according to the report from British
humanitarian group Oxfam International.
The study found the richest 1% had $110 trillion in wealth -- 65 times the total
wealth of the bottom half of the population.
That bottom half of the population owned about $1.7 trillion, or about 0.7% of the
world's wealth. That's the same amount as owned by the 85 richest people, the report
said.
The findings undermine democracy and make it more difficult to fight poverty, the
report said.
“It is staggering that in the 21st century, half of the world’s population own no
more than a tiny elite whose numbers could all sit comfortably in a single train carriage,"
said Winnie Byanyima, the group's executive director.
"Widening inequality is creating a vicious circle where wealth and power are
increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, leaving the rest of us to fight over
crumbs from the top table," she said.
In a report last week, the World Economic Forum said widening income inequality
was the risk most likely to cause serious damage in the next decade.
President Obama recently called the expanding gap between rich and poor a bigger
threat to the U.S. economy than the budget deficit.
The United States has led a worldwide growth in wealth concentration, according to
the Oxfam report, titled "Working for the Few."
The percentage of income held by the richest 1% in the U.S. has grown by nearly
150% since 1980. That small elite has received 95% of wealth created since 2009, after
the financial crisis, while the bottom 90% of Americans have become poorer, Oxfam
said.
The share of wealth owned by the richest 1% also expanded in all but two of the 26
nations tracked by researchers in the World Top Incomes Database.
That's caused a "massive concentration of economic resources in the hands of fewer
people," Oxfam said.
Falling taxes for the rich and increased use of tax havens have helped widen income
inequality, Oxfam said.
The group called on World Economic Forum participants, which include some of
the wealthiest and most influential corporate executives, to take steps to reverse the trend.
Among other things, Oxfam wants them to support progressive taxation, pledge not
to dodge taxes, pay a living wage to workers at their companies and push governments
"to provide universal healthcare, education and social protection" for their citizens.
Study: No harder to climb economic ladder
Source: Paul Wiseman, AP Business Writer/ USA Today/ January 26, 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) — Young Americans from low-income families are as likely to
move into the ranks of the affluent today as those born in the 1970s, according to a report
by several top academic experts on inequality.
The study, published this week by the National Bureau of Economic Research, runs
counter to the widespread belief that a widening gap between rich and poor has made it
harder to climb the economic ladder.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike have expressed alarm over what had
been seen as diminishing opportunities for economic advancement through hard work
and ingenuity. Instead, the study found that 9% of children born in 1986 to the poorest
20% of households were likely to climb into the top 20% — little-changed from 8.4% for
such children born in 1971.
"Absolutely, we were surprised" by the results, says Harvard University economist
Nathaniel Hendren. He is one of the report's authors along with Harvard's Raj Chetty,
Emmanuel Saez and Patrick Kline of the University of California, Berkeley, and Nicholas
Turner of the Treasury Department.
Worries have been growing across the political spectrum about an expanding divide
between America's rich and the rest: The top 1% of Americans accounted for 22.5% of
income earned in the United States in 2012. That is one of the highest figures since the
Roaring '20s and up from a low 8.9% in 1976, according to a database maintained by
Saez.
But the fact the top 1% are pulling away has had little effect on the ability of those
in the bottom fifth to rise to the top fifth, the study found.
The findings are open to different interpretations: They could suggest that
government programs to help the poor have made little headway in increasing economic
opportunity. Or they could suggest that economic advancement would have become
harder without such programs.
"My concern is that there may be less mobility in the future," former White House
economic adviser Alan Krueger said by email. The cost of a college education, for
instance, is increasingly difficult for low- and middle-income families to afford.
Hendren emphasizes that it's still harder to move from poverty to affluence in the
United States than in most other wealthy countries. In a 2012 study of 22 countries,
economist Miles Corak of the University of Ottawa found that the United States ranked
15th for social mobility. Among wealthy countries. Only Italy and the Britain ranked
lower.
"In some sense, how could it have gotten worse?" Hendren said. "It's not like we're losing
the American Dream. We never really had it."
Part 2: Reading for Meaning Statements
Directions: The purpose of this page is to hone your ability to gather textual evidence to
support or refute a statement and to focus your reading on some key points in the article. For
each statement below, highlight whether the text agrees or disagrees with it, and, in the space
provided, share quoted, textual evidence to support your agreement or disagreement.
Agree?
Statements
yes
1. Wealth is distributed evenly
around the globe.
no
yes
no
yes
no
2. The growing income gap
creates even more hurdles for
the poor to climb the economic
ladder.
3. Poor Americans have
limited ability to climb the
economic ladder.
Your Evidence (cite page and paragraph; briefly
explain)
Example:
Part 3: Write a 150+ word reflection using one of the prompts below:
• Share your thoughts about the income gap. What can be done to close the gap?
• The first article lists two possible causes for the income gap (falling taxes for the rich
and tax havens). What are other possible causes? Research and share other causes.
• The second article illustrates how hard it is to climb out of poverty. What can you do as
a student to ensure that in the future you won’t be oppressed by this gap?
• Select any passage and respond to it.
Reflection Self-Editing Checklist
I've read through my response, stopping and correcting anything that
sounds wordy, awkward, or redundant.
I have led into and smoothly blended at least one quotation from the article
using a signal phrase (ex. According to the article…).
I have used logical, appropriate transitions in my response.
My paragraph ends with a logical concluding sentence which sums things
up.
My response is at least 200+ words in length.
It may sound simple, but I've made sure to capitalize the first word in each
sentence.
Sentences are separated by appropriate punctuation. NO RUN-ONS.
Article of the Week Rubric
Directions
4
Student follows little
directions and leaves
out parts of the
assignment.
Student does not
properly reflect on
the article.
7
Student follows all of
the directions but
leaves out part of the
assignment.
Student reflects on
the article by using
some textual
evidence, but does not
explain the relevance
of the evidence
presented.
Student does not
show interaction with
the content of the
article, posing no
questions.
Student asks 2
moderately difficult
questions to show
interaction with the
content of the article.
Reflection
Thoughtful
Reading/Question
Development
10
Student follows all
directions and
completes all parts of
the assignment.
Student reflects on
the article using
mature thinking.
Student discusses
details of the article,
uses textual evidence
to support their
thinking. Textual
evidence is also
explained to
demonstrate its
support for student
thinking.
Student asks 4
complex and difficult
questions to show
interaction with the
content of the text.