This is a paper regarding President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address given on Tuesday, January 28, 2014; throughout his speech he talks about inequality: both socially and economically, job force, education, and the goals for our nation to correct these issues. Much of what he speaks about affects me as well as many others, as we are college students who will eventually pursue employment. Many sociologist theories such as Social Darwinism and Class Conflict align with these issues stated in President Obama's speech.
According to President Obama, "Inequality has intensified, upward mobility has stalled, and even though economic growth is recovering; too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by; let alone to get ahead." (Obama, B.H., 2014) In a country where all men are supposed to be created equal, it is evident that the richer is getting richer; and the poor are getting poorer. The middle class is becoming obsolete and there are only becoming two classes the rich and the poor; today we live in a society where everyone looks out for themselves. As Herbert Spencer's theory leans on the survival of the fittest it states, "As generations pass, a society's most capable and intelligent members ("the fittest") survive, while the less capable die off."(Henslin, 2013) President Obama was reiterating this principle and realizing that lower classes are working harder, but still not making any progress. With this realization he is pushing for the increase in minimum wage to $10.10. As a college student who only is able to work about 20 hours a week this would be a helpful increase. I may not be as privileged as some others maybe and need to work to help assist with my college education, so I am happy that he is pushing for this increase to allow us to get ahead. Moreover, his summation of inequality can be found in Carl Marx's theory of Social Conflict.