Discussion 1: Does democracy require equality of income or wealth? Discuss why
democracy might make a country more or less egalitarian?
To be quite honest I do believe that money plays a HUGE factor in the way the world
operates. Elected officials have some sort of status that keeps them in office for years,
and I do believe that money has a lot to do with it. We as Americans are divided by the
upper class, middle class, and lower class when everything should be equal. It shows
how divided we are just within each class, in all reality the best places to fall are upper
and lower because with upper you can afford to live in society and with lower you reap
all the benefits of Welfare and public assistance, but for those who live in the middle
class and are making bare minimum have to struggle to make ends meet and get no
help because they straggle the fence. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer and
society says well work harder! It's unfortunate that from the beginning of time there has
never been anything created equal, despite what laws are written and passed. You have
to have money to be someone in society these days, to have a voice. Some elected
officials have been in office for over 20 years and no one seems to question it.
Presidents can have two terms but elected officials can stay in office until they die. It's
unfair that we have people sitting in office governing society and they are still stuck in
the 1900s when they took office. How can someone who is 80 plus years old govern
how taxes should be distributed or how society should be run? In every political system,
the rich tend to hold more power – but the relationship between politics, economics, and
inequality is complex (Milanovik, 2017). Democracy in a nutshell is supposed to be for
the people, but half the time when people are voting they don't know who they are
voting for, or even what policies they are voting for. I understand that we get a choice to
vote who can be in office, but sometimes the selection of people who run are only for a
particular class and not for everybody to be created equal. So is democracy really for
the people? Or is democracy a tool to say hey we are created equal because we get to
vote! Then when we vote our voices are still not heard because the elected official is
only targeted for a specific class? In any case, democracy, as we have defined it,
requires the protection of crucial minority rights. Recall that majority rule is only one of
the defining conditions of popular sovereignty and that popular sovereignty is only one
of the three basic benchmarks of democracy, the others being political equality and
political liberty(Greenburg, 2018). Are we really protected? I'm not so sure.
As income inequality has grown over the last 40 years, so has homelessness. Even
after Reagan left office, similar policies favoring the “free market” as the only salvation
for poverty have thrived. And when unregulated capitalism doesn’t work, people on the
brink of poverty and homelessness are left with little options(Griggs, 2021).
In closing to have money is to have power, and to have power is to have everything. We
as a society should step back and look at the bigger picture and notice that no matter
what efforts are "elected officials" are making society still struggles and it's hard for
anyone to get ahead when taxes are rising, minimum is just now being changed(still not
high enough), and poverty is rising. In every political system, the rich tend to hold more
power – but the relationship between politics, economics, and inequality is complex
(Milanovic, 2017). How can the economy be egalitarian when we can't find a common
ground for everyone to be created equal? So to answer the question yes you do need
This study source was downloaded by 100000847426977 from CourseHero.com on 05-22-2022 07:59:06 GMT -05:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/124772828/Week-1-Discussion-Determining-Democracydocx/
democracy might make a country more or less egalitarian?
To be quite honest I do believe that money plays a HUGE factor in the way the world
operates. Elected officials have some sort of status that keeps them in office for years,
and I do believe that money has a lot to do with it. We as Americans are divided by the
upper class, middle class, and lower class when everything should be equal. It shows
how divided we are just within each class, in all reality the best places to fall are upper
and lower because with upper you can afford to live in society and with lower you reap
all the benefits of Welfare and public assistance, but for those who live in the middle
class and are making bare minimum have to struggle to make ends meet and get no
help because they straggle the fence. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer and
society says well work harder! It's unfortunate that from the beginning of time there has
never been anything created equal, despite what laws are written and passed. You have
to have money to be someone in society these days, to have a voice. Some elected
officials have been in office for over 20 years and no one seems to question it.
Presidents can have two terms but elected officials can stay in office until they die. It's
unfair that we have people sitting in office governing society and they are still stuck in
the 1900s when they took office. How can someone who is 80 plus years old govern
how taxes should be distributed or how society should be run? In every political system,
the rich tend to hold more power – but the relationship between politics, economics, and
inequality is complex (Milanovik, 2017). Democracy in a nutshell is supposed to be for
the people, but half the time when people are voting they don't know who they are
voting for, or even what policies they are voting for. I understand that we get a choice to
vote who can be in office, but sometimes the selection of people who run are only for a
particular class and not for everybody to be created equal. So is democracy really for
the people? Or is democracy a tool to say hey we are created equal because we get to
vote! Then when we vote our voices are still not heard because the elected official is
only targeted for a specific class? In any case, democracy, as we have defined it,
requires the protection of crucial minority rights. Recall that majority rule is only one of
the defining conditions of popular sovereignty and that popular sovereignty is only one
of the three basic benchmarks of democracy, the others being political equality and
political liberty(Greenburg, 2018). Are we really protected? I'm not so sure.
As income inequality has grown over the last 40 years, so has homelessness. Even
after Reagan left office, similar policies favoring the “free market” as the only salvation
for poverty have thrived. And when unregulated capitalism doesn’t work, people on the
brink of poverty and homelessness are left with little options(Griggs, 2021).
In closing to have money is to have power, and to have power is to have everything. We
as a society should step back and look at the bigger picture and notice that no matter
what efforts are "elected officials" are making society still struggles and it's hard for
anyone to get ahead when taxes are rising, minimum is just now being changed(still not
high enough), and poverty is rising. In every political system, the rich tend to hold more
power – but the relationship between politics, economics, and inequality is complex
(Milanovic, 2017). How can the economy be egalitarian when we can't find a common
ground for everyone to be created equal? So to answer the question yes you do need
This study source was downloaded by 100000847426977 from CourseHero.com on 05-22-2022 07:59:06 GMT -05:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/124772828/Week-1-Discussion-Determining-Democracydocx/
