For your Paper, you will have to answer two sets of questions (you must answer both):

(1)Among all the topics we talked about this quarter (i.e. student loan debt, poverty, homelessness, addiction, etc.) which one was most interesting to you? Why?

(2)What social problems topic would you like to see added to a future iteration of this class? In what ways is the topic you have identified both a personal trouble and public issue? 

Please produce a written response that answers both sets of questions. Your written responses must be between 500-600 words.

pre-requisite：Most Interesting in the topic of inequality than others(like i.e. student loan debt, poverty, homelessness, addiction). This is my inequality paper before, talking around inequality, and have same basic understanding as my previous paper, but don’t copy it PLZ. Thanks!

For your Paper, you will have to answer two sets of questions (you must answer both):

(1)Among all the topics we talked about this quarter (i.e. student loan debt, poverty, homelessness, addiction, etc.) which one was most interesting to you? Why?

(2)What social problems topic would you like to see added to a future iteration of this class? In what ways is the topic you have identified both a personal trouble and public issue? 

Please produce a written response that answers both sets of questions. Your written responses must be between 500-600 words.

pre-requisite：Most Interesting in the topic of inequality than others(like i.e. student loan debt, poverty, homelessness, addiction). This is my inequality paper before, talking around inequality, and have same basic understanding as my previous paper, but don’t copy it PLZ. Thanks!

For Inequality

“ In “The 1 percent’s Problem” and “The Pitchforks are Coming” various arguments are presented which situate socioeconomic inequality as a social problem. Focus on 1-2 of the arguments from the readings that you personally find most compelling (for example, “the fairness problem”). Briefly outline these arguments and evaluate them. Are these valid reasons for why inequality matters? Why or why not? ”

“The 1 Percent’s Problem” contains extensive arguments shedding light socioeconomic inequality as a social problem. The consumption problem springs up as a result of a widening gap between rich and poor. It is profound that too much power possessed by one interest group helps them to formulate the policies that will help them in the short run, rather than helping the entire society in the long run. The American tax policy, public investment and regulatory policy are all result of a persistent gap between the two classes. The effects of channeling the wealth and income in one direction only are easy to discern on household expenditure which is the backbone of the American economy. When too much money is accumulated by the upper strata of society the spending of the average American abate. The flow of money from the bottom to the top reduced the consumption, as the high-income group spends money on consumption with respect to their income, lower than the lower income group.

The consumption lowers when inequality rises because lower-income individuals do not have enough money to spend. In addition, lower income individuals are more than high-income individuals. In terms of economics, the relationship is simple. As the high-income group accumulates more and more money the aggregate demand goes down. The total demand in the economy goes down despite its high capability of supplying. As a result, the unemployment increases which damp the demand even more. The purchasing power decreases with the less money supply among the lower income individuals which compel them to spend less. Thus, we could say that increasing income inequality decreased the overall consumption of the economy.

Another economic jargon is rent which provides certain ways to the political process to help the rich at the expense of rest. It includes the transfers and subsidies from the government including the laws which allow the corporations to make money by the degradation of the environment. Companies via rent-seeking lobby the government for the grants, tariff production and loan subsidies. Due to the increasing inequality, the magnitude of rent-seeking in the economy increases enormously. The impact of rent-seeking can be examined through a financial bubble. The impact of 2008 financial crises made many people homeless making the lower income group suffer significantly. The financial industry which operates on the basis of speculation is actually a rent-seeking sector par excellence. The rent-seeking economy only brings private returns and social returns are revoked badly.

In simple words, rent-seeking is nothing more than a redistribution of one part of a society to the rent-seekers. Rent-seeking is a significant cause of inequality in contemporary society. Rent-seeking is distributing the money from the bottom to the top of society. Another consequence of rent-seeking is it does not allow the growth as its purely zero-sum activity. It not only distorts the resources but also debilitates the economy. Countries with enriched natural resources do not trap in rent-seeking activities. Rent-seeking takes away the market power from the worker at the bottom of the income distribution. In capitalist economies, the capitalists pay government officials to get unfair access to the resources in order to make the money. In this way, they expand their profitability but the social benefit remain zero. The companies accrue rents allowing the top executives and shareholders to fuel their wealth at the expense of the workers. Unfortunately the rich are getting richer at the expense of the rest of the people. Hence, we can say that rent-seeking is another significant cause of inequality in society (Stiglitz & Bil

Following are my previous essays about other topics, if you can look it, you can get some basic concept about other topics to make a comparison with Inequality. If you want to change to the one topic of these following topics, which also works for me!

1. Society Model

C. Wright Mills in his book posits an idea that people often believe that their private lives are trapped. They find it difficult to overcome their troubles and it is true to a great extent. Their private orbits control their lives in which they live, their potential and power are restricted by their family, jobs, neighborhood, on the other hand, they remain a spectator. The more aware they become of their ambitions and threats the more trapped they feel. This sense of trap involved impersonal changes in the structure of wide societies. People do not define their troubles as institutional contradiction and historical change. Usually, people are unaware of the complex connection between the course of history and the patterns of their own lives. People do not possess the mindset that helps them to comprehend the interplay between the society and individual, history and biography, self and world. People are unable to cope with their personal issues.

These people need the quality of mind that assist them to utilize the information, to foster reason and to attain the coherent summations of what is going on in the world and what is happening within them. This quality of mind is called as sociological imagination. The sociological imagination is a quality of mind that help an individual to comprehend the wide historical scenes by shedding light on its inner life and external life based on the career of the variety of individuals. It enables them to take into account how falsely conscious they are about their social positions in their confusing daily life experience. People are confused about the psychologies of women and men. Social science removes this confusion enabling an individual to understand their life and experience. Social imagination enables us to assimilate the history and the connection between history and biography with society.

The public issue in the contemporary world is a lack of awareness of the surroundings and lack of self-consciousness. People are unaware of the relationship between the wide society and their personal experience. This issue leads to institutional crises and confinement of men. As mentioned by C. Wright Mills I believe social imagination is the only solution for this issue. We need to be aware of our surroundings and respect the cultural values of others. For instance, people believe that homosexuality is not a standard behavior it is against their values. Hence, they bully the gay community and criticize them. We need to be aware of the fact that each individual comes from different background and culture, we should comprehend their cultural values in order to live in a peaceful society.

The public matter is the one that threatens the values of the public. The very nature of the issue defines whether it is public or private. An issue is public if it leads to the crises in the institutional arrangements and contradictions or antagonisms. War could be a public issue as it takes away the comfort of the public, taking away their freedom and their safety. The structural issues of the war involve the causes with the types of people it brings into command. War affects the political and economic, religious and family issues. Similarly, women rights is a public issue. Issues are related to the matters that exceed the local environments of individuals and their inner life. Marriage is public as it has to do with institutions of marriage and the family. Social imagination could resolve the public as well as private issues to a great extent. Contemporary sociology is playing a crucial role in resolving these issues (Mills, 1959).

2. Student Loan Debt

One of the reasons associated with going to college by the society is for the advancement of career options. The origin of this is the idea that the common path to a better career is through earning a college degree. This is in turn tied to the second reason, which is idea of better returns after the completion of college and getting a good job. In other words, society encourages individuals to invest in college education with the reasoning that the investment will later pay in the name of a good career, defined by a well-earning job. Therefore, college is deemed important because it opens up the life of an individual to opportunities that help them in their career advancement, job satisfaction and job security. With the notion that college education provides opportunities to make more money, it is supported by society.

This documentary shed light on some of the trivial issues that are related to pursuing an education in the contemporary society focusing on issues such as the cost of education and the pursuit of education in order to eliminate poverty. Sadly, it depicts the fact that the cost of education does not really pay out as graduates leave college to get average jobs, coupled with student debt loans. Terms like ‘interest rates’, ‘default’ and forbearance are explained in this frightening reality. It depicts how borrowing students are financially crippled by rising tuition costs. The film puts a human face on the student debt crisis, by featuring individuals that currently do not have the hope of buying a home or raising a family simply because they have been crippled by student loans. Watching the documentary highlighted one thing for sure, that the individuals featured are not a minority. They are in fact a majority of the population, trying to keep up with the rising costs of education vis a vis the rising cost of education and in effect, student loans.

One of the ways through which the student debt crisis can be addressed is by the government stopping the subsidies. The government subsidies, aimed at ensuring college education for all, are completely pricing the poorest Americans out of education. On the other hand, the students that choose to remain in the education system become mired in more debt than they can ever repay. The underlying fact is that while the effort to give more students access to education could be sincere, this comes at the expense of the government subsidizing loans but does not really solve the debt crisis. Another plausible solution would be to set student loan interest closer to the prime rate. It does not make sense how profitable financial institutions can borrow money at a relatively lower rate compared to student loans. Student loan interest rates are set by Congress. The law making body could reduce the rate, make education affordable and debts payable. If society asks students to get a higher education, the same society should not penalize them with high interest rates.

Student loan can indeed be defined as a form of modern-day indentured servitude. This discussion has demonstrated the fact that with rising tuition costs and interest rates, students find themselves dedicating most of their time and money repaying the loans after college. Considering the fact that most of them land average jobs, the implication is that they are often not in a position to actually realize the financial gains of going to college as majority of their income is spent on debt repayment. This beats one of the main reasons of college education which is to improve the standard of living. On this basis, student loan debt a form can be described as modern-day indentured servitude.

3. Poverty.

In what ways does this documentary paint addiction as a chemical problem? In what ways does it paint addiction as a social problem too?

One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the issue of addiction is that it only affects the life of the individual who is using the drugs or is cast under addiction. The concept has been negated to the extent that it has often been cited as an excuse being used by the addicts to justify their actions that their addiction is only harming them. However, in reality the behaviors and attitude of the addicts cause much higher implications around the society. Known more prominently as the ‘domino effect’ where the lives of others, than the addicts are affected in more recurring terms. Not only does this situation normalize the use of drug abuse, it also creates harms for individuals that are in close proximity with the addicts. When examining this issue in detail, the very first notion does point to the fact that the addiction might only be casting effects on the abuser’s life and personality, but over time the addiction in itself becomes more destructive. As a major health concern, addiction has been seen to cast short and long term effects on the individual physically, physiologically, psychologically and socially. Not only drug addiction and substance abuse diverts into the form of a chronic disease at some point in the life of the abuser, but it harms the efficiency and mental level of the individuals. In the dimensions of the biological functions of the human body, the most immediate result of drug abuse and addiction is to decrease the tolerance level of the body which eventually leads to death.

On a social level, one of the preliminary reasons is that an individual who is addicted or habitually practices substance abuse, runs away and ignores their responsibilities. Since it becomes hard for them to focus on the daily activities, they often end up losing their employments or jobs. The second prejudice is that since addicts stop earning and spending more, they lose financial modes of savings and whatever is left of their assets. The third repercussion is that the addicted individuals ignore the important elements in life that might include their relationships, families and priorities and end up losing everyone. The most immediate effects are therefore the financial strains that families have to bear and the loss of support and companionship from the family members.

On the other hand, since drugs are illegal in many states and nations of the world, the use by abusers is deemed criminal activity. Not only this, but the activities and behaviors of abusers are often found to be suspicious when they are found in desperate needs of monetary resources to purchase drugs. This further succumbs them to commit crimes since the abusers lose their ability of analyzing the difference between what is right and what is wrong. Furthermore, researchers and observers have corresponded that individuals often find themselves trapped in the cycle of abuse because of mainly environmental factors that affects the overall ambitions, goals and thinking of the individuals. More often addiction takes a toll on individuals who are in complexed, under-confident and have suffered from physical or emotional abuse.