Building Financial Capability and Assets for All
Abstract
The wealth gap between the richest and poorest Americans more than doubled from 1989 to 2016. With its relationship to social mobility across generations, this wealth gap has become so extreme that the term the “Great Gatsby Curve” is often used to describe the phenomena. Indeed, advantages and disadvantages afforded to Americans are becoming increasingly determined by the wealth of one’s childhood caregivers. Access to social mobility and opportunity is moving farther and farther out of reach for those on the end of the Great Gatsby Curve. For example, the top 1% of wealth holders in the United States have at least three times as much wealth as the bottom 80%. Of the over 328 million people living in the United States (US), 38.1 million are living in poverty. These economic disparities disproportionately affect families of color, particularly Black households, who earned ten times less than Caucasian/white households in 2016, amongst other disparities. When comparing all Black men to all white men, Black men earn 51 cents for every dollar white men earn, which represents a gap that has remained consistent since 1950. Working cisgender women earn just 82 cents for every dollar cisgender men earn and the gap between women of color is larger than for white women. The content of the chapter is particularly well situated within social welfare policy curricula and the example of student loan debt is utilized to facilitate class exercises and discussions.
Publication Title
Social Work Education and the Grand Challenges: Approaches to Curricula and Field Education
Recommended Citation
Delavega, E., Fletcher, K., & Hirschi, M. (2023). Building Financial Capability and Assets for All. Social Work Education and the Grand Challenges: Approaches to Curricula and Field Education, 277-292. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003308263-15
