Introduction
Nowadays, we have the opportunities to be the active participants of the social problems solving. In the past, people struggled for gaining these opportunities. However, it does not mean that the nature of social issues changed dramatically. Quite the opposite, the nature is, essentially, the same but the methods of their solving and the attitude of public towards them have undergone changes.
The aim of this essay is to analyze the newspaper and magazine articles devoted to the problem of social inequality and economic welfare.
The Articles Analysis
The first article, which I am going to present, is The Future of Fair Labor by Jefferson Cowie. The author gives the overview of the historic process of the labor legislation reforming. Cowie emphasizes the importance of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s legislative act addressed to the employers and workers.
The President’s initiative laid the foundation of the modern employment legislation. “It outlawed child labor, guaranteed a minimum wage, established the official length of the workweek at 40 hours, and required overtime pay for anything more” (Cowie n.pag.).
However, the author of the article states that the current situation in the field of employment regulation and legislation is rather vulnerable. It seems that the current legislation is too flexible in the sense that it gives to the employers the opportunity to find the loopholes. As a result, the substantial part of employees works the abnormal hours and does not obtain the appropriate remuneration. The author claims that it is the role of the government to ensure the efficiency of the current employment legislation.
The second article is The 1 Percent Are Only Half the Problem by Timothy Noah. The economic inequality is the major theme of the article. The author touches upon the problem of social stratification based on the differences in the economic welfare of the American population.
Although he indicates to the significant gap between the wealthy individuals, whose weight in the total population accounts for only 1%, and the other part of the population, the weight of which is 99%, he argues that the problem should not be considered only in the context of the average income.
Noah claims that the access to education is the crucial factor of the social and economic welfare. The rise of the educated class should be taken into consideration (Noah n.pag.). The problem is twofold: on the one hand, the gap caused by the income inequality narrows, and, on the other hand, the educational gap widens.
The Cuts that Keeps Bleeding is the third source, which deserves the special attention. It presents the statistical information on the dynamics in government spending on education. According to the data presented in the article, the funding of the education has been reduced by 28% since 2008 (“The Cuts that Keeps” 11).
It is clear that the decrease in financing affects the quality of education. The statistics shows that the number of course offerings has decreased by 15% since 2008. The data support the opinion regarding the educational gap increase. It is not surprising as the cuts in spending limit the access of people to the higher education and they contribute to the social and economic inequality.
Conclusion
In summary, the analyzed articles are devoted to the problem of social and economic inequality. The authors emphasize the role of government regulation. Although the situation improves in certain areas, there are still the urgent problems requiring the legislative changes and government initiatives.
Works Cited
Cowie, Jefferson. “The Future of Fair Labor.” The New York Times. 24 June 2013. Nytimes.com. Web.
Noah, Timothy. “The 1 Percent Are Only Half the Problem”. The New York Times. 18 May 2013. Opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com. Web.
“The Cuts that Keep Bleeding.” By the Numbers, 30 (2013): 3. Print