FOR EXCEPTIONAL PROFF ONLY

EconS 101 WA 1

Why Has Income Inequality Been Rising Since the 1970’s?

Due in NetTutor through the link in Blackboard (learn.wsu.edu) by 10th February, by 11:50 pm (PST)

Below are two competing views (Proposition #1 and Proposition #2) on why income inequality has been rising (even among the lower 99%) in the United States since the 1970’s.

Reading: “Skills, education, and the rise of earnings inequality among the “other 99 percent,” David H. Autor, Science 23 May 2014: 843-851. [DOI:10.1126/science.1251868] (see below)

Proposition #1:

“More people are falling behind today because they’re lazy. In the U.S. anyone willing to work can earn a decent living. The income distribution is the same as the effort distribution. People who work hard earn a good living. Lazy people stay poor. The income distribution has been skewing because of a growing culture of dependency. It used to be shameful to accept handouts from the government, but now it’s perfectly acceptable. So more people opt out of the labor force and sit around collecting handouts from the rest of us. Of course their incomes are going to be lower than those in the top tiers.”

Proposition #2:

“The incomes of the rich and poor have been growing farther apart due to purposeful policy decisions that have favored the rich at the expense of the poor. Starting with Ronald Reagan’s financial deregulation, and continuing with successive Republican attacks on New Deal and Great Society social programs to finance tax cuts for their Wall Street cronies, government policy in this country has systematically channeled the rewards of our immensely productive economy towards the rich and away from the poor. America needs to open the gateway to prosperity for all through fair tax policies, decent minimum wages, better public schools, aid to low-income college students, and a universal health care system.”

Assess the degree to which each of those propositions is actually consistent with David H. Autor’s well-researched explanation of the same phenomenon. That is, for each of the propositions tell me whether or not Autor would agree that the underlying factor described in the proposition is the major cause of the pattern of income inequality since the 1970’s. (2 paragraphs)

1) Begin with a topic sentence that concisely states your judgment about how consistent the two propositions are with Autor’s analysis, and complete that paragraph with a summary of Autor’s explanation. Be sure to mention some of the factors Autor identifies as having contributed to an increase in the demand for highly-educated workers and a decrease in the demand for less-educated workers.

2) In your second paragraph, discuss the degree to which the two propositions are consistent with Autor’s analysis. Is one more consistent than the other?

Grading Rubric

Please include your name, instructor’s name (Haseeb Ahmed), course and section number (i.e. EconS 101.02 [TTh 2:50-4:05 pm]), and writing assignment (Assignment 1) on the top of your assignment.

This is the first of three writing assignments. After receiving feedback, you may re-submit the essay to NetTutor for another try – but you only get one second chance on each writing assignment. If you don’t get an acceptable score, even after revising and resubmitting this assignment, you can still rescue your writing assignment average by doing well on the next two assignments.

Criteria	Meets Expectations	Needs Improvement
Writing	Ideas are well-organized. Transition sentences effectively connect one idea to the next. The essay is free of typos and grammatical errors.	The writing is difficult to follow and/ or poorly organized. Transition sentences are absent or ineffective. Typos and/ or grammatical errors distract the reader.
Economic analysis	The topic sentence clearly states the student’s judgment about the degree to which Propositions #1 and #2 are consistent with Autor’s study.	The topic sentence does not state the student’s judgment about the degree to which Propositions #1 and #2 are consistent with Autor’s study.
	Correctly identifies the major cause of rising inequality in Autor’s analysis.	Autor’s argument is misrepresented, and/or the summary is too skimpy.
	Explicitly state the degree to which the two propositions are consistent with Autor’s research, and supports his or her claims with examples from the reading.	The question of the degree to which the two propositions are consistent with Autor’s research is not addressed and/or, is not supported with examples.

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