Surviving in America has become increasingly more difficult due to the Government’s lack of oversight which causes the income gap to increase and the middle class to disappear. Due to an extreme gap of income between the wealthiest 1% and the remaining 99% in America, the middle class is dissipating to nothing because of unequal distribution of wealth. Poverty in America is a major issue that can and should be addressed as soon as possible because unequal distribution of wealth is causing greed, controversy and hate among millions of citizens. Although an income gap can be very inherent in capitalism, the Government should do more to help combat income inequality and unequal distribution of wealth because it takes advantage of the public and completely dissolving the middle class.
An income gap is sufficiently killing the American economy and the Government should step in to help fix this issue. Poverty and the unequal distribution of wealth is a major issue that is killing our everlasting country. American citizens are extensively suffering due to the unequal distribution of wealth and is causing no impact on the top 1% of wealthy individuals. The extreme gap between the amount of income the 1% makes and the 99% of Americans make is sufficiently causing the middle class to disappear rapidly. “The fact that tens of millions of workers will still be trapped in low-wage hell while a sliver of Americans live better than the kings of old will seem like a minor detail.” (David Callahan) Hard working individuals are treated unequally in retrospect to the little amount of income they receive compared to the 1% community and the limited amount of work they need to complete to be considered the 1%. Income inequality causes big businesses...
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...dangerous level, and the government has turned a blind eye to this issue. The government should step in and do more to fix this issue because income inequality is causing controversy and discrimination between the 1% of wealthy individuals and the not so much, poorer less fortunate 99% of America 's working class citizens. With income inequality on the rise, it is slowly but surely killing our country from the inside out. It is causing the middle class to slowly dissipate into a false reality with endless hope for recovery and modification. The rich 1% is burning a metaphorical hole in their pocket with all the money they spend, with absolutely no precautions and submissions, while the poorer working class is suffering to get by with the limited funds they have. Our nation is divided into these two categories which causes greed and extreme hate between the classes.
Though it is vital for the government to put some measures in place, some ideas are not the best ideas. For instance, high taxation on the wealthy. Some people claim that increasing taxes on the wealthy will “raise the top marginal tax rate and close tax loopholes that disproportionately favor the wealthy” (Source E). It may be true that it will close loopholes for the wealthy; however, “ heavy taxation and regulation will simply drive [the wealthy] to operate elsewhere [leading to] a huge net loss to the country” (Source D). This means that the country will get poorer and in more debt from importing goods from the companies that left, thus, the government will have to raise taxes, which will take money from the poor and what little middle class we have left. Without the free reign of the capitalist society, America would not be America. Their are however things the government can do to lower the income gap without putting consequences on the
With each class comes a certain level in financial standing, the lower class having the lowest income and the upper class having the highest income. According to Mantsios’ “Class in America” the wealthiest one percent of the American population hold thirty-four percent of the total national wealth and while this is going on nearly thirty-seven million Americans across the nation live in unrelenting poverty (Mantsios 284-6). There is a clear difference in the way that these two groups of people live, one is extreme poverty and the other extremely
Our economy does not serve the purpose that it was designed to do which is to provide decent wages to the hard workers and keep prices lower than the wages. I believe that Americans are kept in the dark about the income inequality so that the rich can keep getting richer while the working class remains at the bottom struggling to make ends meet at every paycheck.
The highest earning fifth of U.S. families earned 59.1% of all income, while the richest earned 88.9% of all wealth. A big gap between the rich and poor is often associated with low social mobility, which contradicts the American ideal of equal opportunity. Levels of income inequality are higher than they have been in almost a century, the top one percent has a share of the national income of over 20 percent (Wilhelm). There are a variety of factors that influence income inequality, a few of which will be discussed in this paper. Rising income inequality is caused by differences in life expectancy, rapidly increases in the incomes of the top 5 percent, social trends, and shifts in the global economy.
Income inequality not only harms us fiscally, but also affects our mental and physical wellbeing; therefore, it is important to identify the right ways to control wealth distribution among people.
While the the 1%, are secured, no one is addressing the rest of the people. As the economy flourishes, housing, higher education and health care, and child care increases with it to the point where 30 percent of a person’s income goes towards housing. People are finding it impossible to purchase a house with their middle class incomes. People begin to fall out of the once stable middle class because too much is needed to be sacrificed in order to live in a stable home. In the shrinking middle class, “40% or more of the residents live below the poverty
3. What are the effects of this wealth inequality in the US and what causes it, as well as some possible solutions and their ramifications, will all be discussed and answered below. There has always been a wealth gap between the richest and poorest in society. However, in the past decade, the wealth gap between the richest and poorest citizens in the US has been growing rapidly. In the 70s and 80s, the wealth and income growth rate for both poor and rich people were similar, however, between the years 2009 and 2012 the top 1% income increased 31% while for the bottom 20%, their income actually dropped and for the vast majority of Americans, the average yearly income only increased by 0.4% [4].
Everyone has his or her own ideas of how wealth should be distributed properly. Some people believe wealth should be left to family, left for public services, or become the property of others. Others believe that people should not have excess wealth, resulting in non-existent class distinctions. An alternative view is that wealth is not distributed; instead, the wealthy continue to grow wealthier while those in poverty can not escape it and fall further into a life of poverty. The beliefs discussed above come from three different writers. Those writers include Andrew Carnegie, Karl Marx, and Robert B. Reich. These writers all have different opinions on how wealth should be distributed properly.
America’s upper class has been getting richer since the past three decades, and we have still not found a way to stop this. We have been unable to find a way to distribute America’s wealth equally, so we can have a decent lower class and a good middle class. Inequality has caused many people to struggle in various ways, but their is alway another side to the story.
Income inequality has affected American citizens ever since the American Dream came to existence. The American Dream is centered around the concept of working hard and earning enough money to support a family, own a home, send children to college, and invest for retirement. Economic gains in income are one of the only possible ways to achieve enough wealth to fulfill the dream. Unfortunately, many people cannot achieve this dream due to low income. Income inequality refers to the uneven distribution of income and wealth between the social classes of American citizens. The United States has often experienced a rise in inequality as the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, increasing the unstable gap between the two classes. The income gap in America has been increasing steadily since the late 1970’s, and has now reached historic highs not seen since the 1920’s (Desilver). UC Berkeley economics professor, Emmanuel Saez conducted extensive research on past and present income inequality statistics and published them in his report “Striking it Richer.” Saez claims that changes in technology, tax policies, labor unions, corporate benefits, and social norms have caused income inequality. He stands to advocate a change in American economic policies that will help close this inequality gap and considers institutional and tax reforms that should be developed to counter it. Although Saez’s provides legitimate causes of income inequality, I highly disagree with the thought of making changes to end income inequality. In any diverse economic environment, income inequality will exist due to the rise of some economically successful people and the further development of factors that push people into poverty. I believe income inequality e...
It’s my opinion that something should be done to redistribute the income. The rich continue to get richer while the poor are getting even poorer. Even though some of us have the same opportunities but choose different routes of life most rich Americans are actually born reach.52 percent of Americans agree that the government should redistribute income. In order to redistribute the wealth it would consist of heavy taxes on the richest
The American deficit grows every day, along with the wealth divide between the wealthiest and poorest Americans. The nation’s financial standing is worsening by the second, and something must be done to improve it. The richest Americans are only getting richer in this time of economic crisis, and tax increases for the wealthy are a viable way to more equally distribute wealth throughout the lower classes in the United States. It may be true that some of the wealthiest citizens have earned their money, but action should be taken to help the struggling majority of the country instead of the privileged few. The United States has a responsibility to give the lower classes an opportunity to rise out of poverty, and if the lower class continues to grow like it is now, this nation could have larger problems to deal with in the future.
In the world today there is a lot of poverty. There is a great divide
Income inequality continues to increase in today’s world, especially in the United States. Income inequality means the unequal distribution between individuals’ assets, wealth, or income. In the Twilight of the Elites, Christopher Hayes, a liberal journalist, states the inequality gap between the rich and the poor are increasing widening, and there need to have things done - tax the rich, provide better education - in order to shortening the inequality gap. America is a meritocratic country, which means that everybody has equal opportunity to be successful regardless of their class privileges or wealth. However, equality of opportunity does not equal equality of outcomes. People are having more opportunities to find a better job, but their incomes are a lot less compared to the top ten percent rich people. In this way, the poor people will never climb up the ladder to high status and become millionaires. Therefore, the government needs to increase all the tax rates on rich people in order to reduce income inequality.
Everyday people within our country face conflict based on their social class. It is always a story of one getting unequal wages and working conditions, favoritism, and many other inequities based on social class. It may seem like a little problem, but this dispute is like a disease and can spread throughout history. People’s life chances and opportunities are decreasing as class discrimination takes place. America is known as the land full of opportunities which is why many individuals migrate here hoping to achieve the American dream. However, economy is only fair to the majorities and leaves the minorities to suffer the inequality and lower socioeconomic statuses which affects their social mobility. Therefore, due to the nature of capitalism