Relevance of local government structure to inequality in the US

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American communities are locomoting rapidly in terms of demographic structure. As the demographic structure shifts, the inequality between the urban and suburban takes control in access to education, affordable housing, and infrastructure (Benjamin et al,2001). Income inequality has increased and is beginning to affect the ability of local governments to deliver services. The creation of local government is alluded to social inequality, political fragmentation and contributes to economic growth. Economic inequality affects access to public jobs and anti-poverty programs (Frug et al.,2011). Political fragmentation is the process of reforming positions and authority by comprising independent commodities like districts. Through the local government, the commands of the jurisdictional outcome allow the residents to make decisions regarding schools, crime rates, and public services.

Without a sure way for most individuals to escape from poverty it becomes more imperative that governments especially at the local level to come in and asses’ various ways and means in which they can find a common ground to assist improvised individuals (Frug et al.,2011) With an ever-expanding income inequality issue that seems to be always expanding especially in recent decades, it becomes clear now more than ever that if adequate solutions cannot be found then a great majority of people may end up in worse economic conditions than they are in now (Benjamin et al.,2001). These forms of inequality are also seen to adversely affect our school system unequally to an overwhelmingly alarming extent. A case in point of such a place experiencing this issue is New Jersey, in which we see schools in a wealthier position in different districts perform much better than districts with less wealth and access to a proper education.

Urban areas in America with a higher number of black individuals who have less access to education, experience even harder hardships due to the ever-increasing problem of income inequality. America’s past laws on redlining and segregation of schools have undoubtedly caused this problem to become worse than it is over the years. Modern-day segregation of African American students has even caused the problem to further balloon to a situation that seems unrecoverable to most individuals experiencing these hardships (Simon, 2011). Without proper local governments and even better systems of infrastructure, these urban areas seem to be left in an inescapable position that better helps them alleviate their current dilemmas (Simon, 2011).

Although urban areas face the bulk of issues caused by inequality this does not in any way imply that suburbs experience an easier time or are even better off. Current research has noted that suburban areas have not been spared from a lack of having proper local governments to help in development and neighborhood planning (Mansfield et al.,2010). These suburban areas have been designed in such a way that most important home facilities such as hospitals and shopping areas are located so far away from residential areas in which most residents live. This poor planning on where exactly houses should be built and also where important facilities should be has created an unpleasant scenario in which most residents of suburbs are unable to gain key essential services and thus in all likelihood end up in such scenario in which they are adversely negatively affected to a point in which some may even wind up dead (Simon, 2011).

All in all, a lack of local governments is not the only factor to blame as to why most populated areas are failing in ensuring they have adequate and necessary amenities to help them thrive. A common denominating factor that has led to the current situation worse now is bad if not ignorant political decisions being made in a variety of states. Certain regions within the country such as New York give us a sense of just how bad planning can greatly lead to a system that is in no way sufficient enough to cater to or help the individuals in need (Rosenthal et al., 2017). A good enough example of this is the New York subway system which although sufficient enough to cater to a vast majority of people is still grossly mismanaged to an extent that it ends up being of no value to a large number of people dependent on it. Thus from seeing how mismanagement of this system is done we further get an understanding of just how badly a mismanaged system may end up causing more harm than good.

With the rise of modern-day billionaires and millionaires with an obscene amount of wealth we also see a rise in the number of poverty-stricken individuals facing hardships and challenges that have even left most of them homeless (Kawachi et al.,2014). Although most would think that there are no relations between those two scenarios it has become clear that there is an existing correlation between these two factors. The subsequent tax cuts to the rich have in all eventually caused this situation to become worse than it is. As a matter of fact, for every increase in a tax cut for the rich we also additionally see that the bottom half of the country is taxed even harder to ensure taxation is still adhered to and certain amounts of money are received by the government (Carafano et al.,2006). This in turn has demonstrated to most Americans the topmost priority of the government and thus made it quite harder for most individuals to rise from poverty levels and thus move to a different life class.

To help curb this issue in one way or another most American states have implemented means that help their local government have more power and thus be able to easily make changes that help the community at large (Mansfield et al.,2010). This although is a step in the right direction it is still a far cry approach to the other more immediate decisions that need to be made to help the country solve its inequality issues. A proper system of organizers and politicians seems to be the only form of an adequate strategy to help the entire country as a whole (Mansfield et al., 2010).

References

Benjamin, G., & Nathan, R. P. (2001). Regionalism and realism: A study of governments in the New York metropolitan area. Brookings Institution Press.

Carafano, J. J., & Weitz, R. (2006). Learning from disaster: the role of federalism and the importance of grassroots response. Heritage Foundation.

Frug, G. E., & Barron, D. J. (2011). City-bound. Cornell University Press.

Kawachi, I., & Subramanian, S. V. (2014). Income inequality. Social epidemiology, 126, 126-152.

Mansfield, E. D., & Solingen, E. (2010). Regionalism. Annual review of political science, 13, 145-163.

Rosenthal, B. M., Fitzsimmons, E. G., & LaForgia, M. (2017). How politics and bad decisions starved New York’s subways. New York Times, 18.

Simon, T. T. (2011). The effects of modern-day segregation of African American students in South Carolina’s public schools (Doctoral dissertation, Fielding Graduate University).