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The Parable of the Sower is set in a time of great tension after the riots of 1992 and the economy of the LA county collapsed. There was a sense of survival of the fittest among the people because there was such a lack of resources available to them. Because of the lack of supplies and unwillingness of the people to fix this, Butler's described a world of chaos.

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Economic Failure: Today and Butler's Vision 

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Economic Failure: Today and Butler's Vision 

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Wealth Spread in the United States Today 

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Wealth Spread in the United States Today 

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Infographics on the distribution of wealth in America, highlighting both the inequality and the difference between our perception of inequality and the actual numbers. The reality is often not what we think it is. This shows the reality of where the economics of the United States is currently, and where it is heading in the near future if we do not stop the inequality of wealth distribution.

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The economy was at it's lowest in 2008 since the Great Depression in the 1930's. Even today, it is not back where it should be. The biggest reason is the country's 17 trillion dollar debt. Because of how deep into debt our country is, the government feels the need to raise the taxes on small business owners. This idea is contradicting because when they raise the taxes on the owners, it causes them to want less employees and the amount of people without jobs will just increase. This is the biggest reason why many people do not have jobs and this problem contributes a large portion to the reason our economy is failing.

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A new report highlights the implications of rising poverty, job loss, and greater inequality in America.

The social safety net has performed admirably, but is struggling to meet rising poverty and needs. It gets a mixed grade, while the economy gets an "F" for failing to provide enough jobs for the poor.

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For the report, " The State of the Union on Poverty and Inequality 2014," experts examined labor markets, poverty, the safety net, and inequalities in income, wealth, health, and education.

"The country's economy and labor market remain in deep disrepair," the report states, "whereas our various post-market institutions (e.g., the safety net, educational institutions, health institutions) have a mixed record of coping with the rising poverty and inequality that has been handed to them by a still-struggling economy and labor market."

The social safety net consists of a variety of government cash and non-cash benefits and programs that assist the poor, says David Grusky, a Stanford University professor of sociology and the director of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, one of three national poverty centers.

Findings and implications

A failing labor market: The economy is still not delivering enough jobs. In 2013, the proportion of all 25- to 54-year-olds who hold jobs was almost 5 percent lower than in 2007, for both women and men. A full recovery from the Great Recession is unlikely if the economy does not deliver more jobs and better jobs.

Rising poverty: The official poverty rate increased from 12.5 percent in 2007 to 15 percent in 2012. The child poverty rate increased from 18 percent in 2007 to 21.8 percent in 2012. A very responsive safety net has held poverty rates down to roughly what prevailed during the weaker recessions of the 1980s and 1990s.

A stronger (but strained) social safety net: The safety net is providing a growing share of the support that low-income households need to escape poverty. In 2012, safety net programs provided the third-highest level of such "poverty relief" (i.e., support needed to reach 150 percent of the official poverty line) in the last 25 years.

A safety net that increasingly encourages market work: The safety net is doing a better job of protecting households from sharp declines in support when people increase their market earnings. As a result, the safety net is better equipped to encourage or "incentivize" employment. Though this is due largely to the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit in the 1990s-a refundable tax credit for low- to moderate-income households-the effect continues today.

Increasing income inequality: After mid-2009, most measures of income inequality increased, resuming what has been a nearly relentless growth in income inequality during the last 30 years.

Rising wealth inequality: Wealth inequality rose for the first time since the early 1980s. Figures for 2010 indicate wealth inequality is higher than any level recorded in nearly three decades. Also, the Great Recession reduced the net worth of African Americans and Hispanics more than it reduced the net worth of whites.

Health and education

"The decline in some health outcomes reflects increases in the poverty rate and the characteristically poor health outcomes of those in poverty," the report reads.

In education, the academic achievement gap has been closing between black and white Americans over the last 40 years, although "disparities in college completion" have increased over the same period.

The study's release marks the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty declared in 1964 during the Lyndon Johnson administration. Because of this anniversary, the scholars behind the new study consider the prospect of a Second War on Poverty.

"The results presented here reveal an economy that is failing to deliver the jobs, a failure that then generates much poverty, that exposes the safety net to demands well beyond its capacity to meet them, and that places equally harsh demands on our health care, penal, and retirement systems," they write.

What can be done?

The report notes that a conventional approach to poverty might consist of narrow and piecemeal attempts at reform that target not the economy, but the institutions-the safety net, health care, and education-that deal with the "jobs disaster."

Instead, the report suggests a sharper focus on job growth. "It is worth considering whether a no-holds-barred commitment to job-delivering reform might be a more efficient and sustainable way forward."
Source: Stanford University

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'Report card' says US economy is failing - Futurity

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A new report highlights the implications of rising poverty, job loss, and greater inequality in America. The social safety net has performed admirably, but is struggling to meet rising poverty and needs. It gets a mixed grade, while the economy gets an "F" for failing to provide enough jobs for the poor.

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Today, in order to keep the economy from dropping so deeply, the government could raise the minimum wage so that people are getting paid more. If people get paid more then they have more money to spend and put back into the community. If people are putting money back into the community then it helps to keep the economy up with money flowing in and out.

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"It looked so peaceful, and yet people out there were trying to kill each other, and no doubt succeeding. Strange how normal it's become for us to lie on the ground and listen while nearby, people try to kill each other"

The economy has gotten to the point where people have to kill each other for their possessions and do what they have to, to stay alive. Just the fact that the world itself can be so peaceful, yet the rampant of human kind can corrupt it all.

"Dad says water now costs several times as much as gasoline"

This just puts things into perspective and points out that the priorities of the nation has changed. The demand for water, a necessity to survive, is to much greater than meaningless gasoline.

"You're suppose to be dirty now. If you are clean you make a target of yourself."

In Butler's world the meaning of fitting in has been manipulated to the point where instead of trying to impress people by a person's appearance, a person is trying to blend into a crowd of people just to get by.

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As a group we collectively decided that the world of havoc and chaos that Butler describes can very well be possible. We believe that at the rate we are going as a nation this mad be what is to come in the future. Sadly, money is what makes the world go round, figuratively speaking. Without this, people would eventually point the finger at each other and all hell would break loose. People's mentality and priorities would have to change, just as in Parable, to survival mode and hope that they would find a way out of this mess.

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This video shows different scenarios of what the United States could be like in the near future of 2050. The fourth represents the closest to Bulters vision of the near economy and world. Different scenarios are shown in the video of ways humans may act to change the future.

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"Wealth Inequality in America." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 20 May 2014.

Konczal, Mike. "Economists Agree: Raising the Minimum Wage Reduces Poverty." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 04 Jan. 2014. Web. 20 May 2014.

"'Report Card' Says US Economy Is failing - Futurity." Futurity. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2014.

Butler, Octavia E. Parable of the Sower. New York: Warner, 2000. Print.