Income Inequality In America

Imagine standing in a pile of quicksand, while frantically trying to exit the sand that is literally trying to swallow you whole it becomes apparent that no progress is being made, and you are slowly falling deeper into the ground. This is what it’s like to be a part of the American lower- and lower-middle-class. While the rich have immeasurable room to get richer, Americans that identify with the lower classes find themselves scratching and clawing each month to keep their heads above ground to be able to feed their families pay their bills, and save money to send their children to college. Over the past 100 years, the gap between the lower, middle, and upper classes has grown significantly. The rich are becoming richer and the poor are left

The income gap is getting wider and the rich are finding new ways to widen said gap while the poor find themselves staying financially stagnant. According to Emmanuel Saez, University of California-Berkeley economist, “research shows growing inequality, with the richest 10 percent of families now capturing half of all personal income.” (qtd in CQ reasearcher, wealth and inequality). The top 1 percent benefit from tax break’s, lower class Americans actually pay a bigger percentage of taxes than the wealthy. According to a study conducted by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy “In 2015 the poorest fifth of Americans will pay on average 10.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes, the middle fifth will pay 9.4 percent and the top 1 percent will average 5.4 percent.” (Qtd in CQ researcher, How Expensive it is to be poor). This taxing system seems absurdly backwards, why offer relief to the people that are in no need of relief? Why are big corporations able to exploit loopholes in tax codes when middle class and low class families are struggling each month to pay their bills while getting taxed a larger percentage than millionaires? During the Bush administration tax cuts were given to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans that was twice as large as the middle class (qtd in Opposing VP, Middle class needs a tax break). (

Becoming a well off American takes a good paying job and the disposable capital that is necessary to acquire assets. A low-class American generally does not have either of these. For the most part, the lower and lower-middleclass spend their pay checks on feeding their families and paying their bills. Month-to-month the same cycle occurs. There is no room or even time to think about putting money into a venture that may pan out in the future. There is no room for “may” or “could happen” when you are poor, when you are living in poverty or pay check to paycheck even the smallest financial risk could put your families financial health in a serious hole. A common misconception about Americans suffering from poverty is that they are lazy. Yes, some Americans suffering from poverty are lazy but this isn’t always the case, often poor Americans are equally if not harder workers than the wealthy. “Many poor people work, but they just don’t make enough to move out of poverty – an estimated 11 million Americans fall into this category” (NY times, how expensive it is to be poor). When taking a closer look at the American economy it becomes apparent that a large portion of our citizens are working extremely hard but their effort isn’t being rewarded by the system. In this economy the lower classes have a