Introduction to American Politics online course discussion – U4Q: West Book, Ch2 | Quick Homework Help

I need support with this Political Science question so I can learn better.

Be sure to read carefully and share your thought after reading. Just aim to understand and digest material and thoughts. No need to memorize anything. Also, comment constructively on a classmates’ posting.

West, Ch TWO “Economic Frustrations” 39

The Decline of Agriculture 40

Lost Manufacturing Jobs 45

Wage Stagnation and Inequality 48

A Rise in Public Anger 51

Here is classmate’s posting from question. Please reply in 1st person point of view.

Classmate’s post

These chapters remind me of the film we watched during our first unit called Inequality For All. It has since been removed from Netflix and Hulu which is interesting. That was a very eye-opening video and it correlates to these chapters in the same way. I didn’t realize that our drug and opioid crisis started with the downfall of agriculture (West Pg. 46). The government outsourced and found cheaper ways to do the jobs that American farmers were doing. They took away jobs from most people in the small rural communities, leaving the ones left with low pay and horrible benefits. West mentions on page 47 that a few people close to him were deeply affected by the shift and turned to alcohol and drugs, even one committed suicide. The government is solely responsible for these people’s livelihood and it went down the drain. From then until now, the farmers are unheard because there aren’t enough of them for it to be a big enough issue to look into ( West Pg. 40). “The rich were getting richer while the poor were getting poorer and the middle class was stagnating.” ( West Pg. 49). There is a chart on page 50 that shows how big the gap is between incomes. It also shows that in 1981 the incomes started to shift and you see a dramatic increase in income for the rich, the middle-class stays about the same, and the poor gets lower. This was also during a time when Republicans had their 12 years in office and Republicans are known for giving the rich tax breaks. That’s why when the Democrats got in office, the rich didn’t like it. On page 50, and also Adrian from this class touched on this, West quotes one of his republican friends during a conversation about Obama’s plan on taxing the rich people. She said, “The United States should not increase taxes on the rich because all our parties create jobs!” Which in my opinion is ridiculous. They are so rich that the tax cuts wouldn’t make a difference to them, they could still throw the parties.

Works cited

WEST, DARRELL M. DIVIDED POLITICS, DIVIDED NATION. BROOKINGS INSTITUTION PR

“Inequality For All”. 2020. Kornbluth, Jacob. Inequality For All. Jen Chaiken, Sebastian Dungan, 2013.