The Gap Between Us
In the United States, there is a huge income disparity between the richest ten percent, and bottom ninety percent. The American tax, and political system favors the top 10% while neglecting the middle and working classes, suppressing living wages and exporting jobs overseas. A society where working 40 hours a week will not put food on the table. If the average hardworking American is working endless hours to try and support their families which is just slightly above the poverty line, while groups of 400 individuals, who are heads of the top 500 companies and financial institutions, who if even work, is less than 108 days a year, and are proud owners of 50% of U. S’s entire wealth. This is the reality of the United
…show more content…
However since mid1980s the transfer of wealth from the middle class and poor to the richest has increase due to Regan’s policies of dismantling Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal social welfare programs to embrace what Regan called “Tinkled Economics” that would favor special interest groups, and Fortune500 companies. The idea was that if taxes were cut to companies and top ten percent, it will allow for these companies to invest their newly freed capital into more human resources that will allow for job growth. Along with less corporate regulation that would inspire companies to stay in the United States. These polices continued with the Bush tax cut and the 2008 recession which further widen the gap. According to U.S senator Bernie Sanders The wealth own by the bottom 90% has been in sharp decline since 1990s ever since the tax breaks and special loopholes of Regenomics working for larger corporations instead of the American public. Suppressing labor unions, and living wages by establishing a system that prefers corporations over the public creating a huge gap between the top and bottom percentages across the board. This system of favoring the top ten and one percent over the other ninety percent is the cause of the huge income inequality in the United …show more content…
This not only is giving huge breaks towards companies who exported the U.S job market overseas, but serves as an incentive to continue to export jobs overseas due to a lesser overhead cost and tax exemptions of doing so. The Inventory Property Sales, wealth created overseas of American companies is taxed in the nation or region in where it is created, and the U.S. gives a tax credit for that amount in order to avoid double taxation. However, this exception has lead towards a huge amount of job exporting and tax evasion. Some companies have amassed disproportionate amount of such tax credits “inventory” as it is called. According to Sarah from the Financial Times “To be able utilize their inventory credits, companies artificially boost foreign income through a ‘title passage rule’ that allows companies to allocate 50 percent of income from U.S. production sold in another country as income generated by that foreign country the ‘property sales’” which leads to a further enriching of shareholders and CEO’s while passing the economic burden onto the American public. The 5 year cost to Government from just Inventory Property Sales credits is $16.7 billion. Who benefits are Multinationals with operations in high-tax foreign countries. Not to mention the continuous outsourcing of American jobs due to these loopholes that seem to incentives American corporations to leave the United States
James Madison once stated inequality of the rich and poor predicament to be “evil” and believed that the government should avoid an “immoderate, and especially unmerited, accumulation of riches” (Johnston, 2016). As one of the founding fathers of our nation, James Madison had a concern about the separation between the rich and the poor. He felt the government should do what it could to avoid the separation, which one can infer that he meant for the government to tax the rich by a greater percentage, thus reducing the financial burden on the poor. A rift has always been present between the rich and the poor throughout history. Depending upon the job, the working class may or may not make enough to support a family. At this point, the
In the United States, high standard of living is not equally shared with in the Americans. The 1970s and 1990s was period where economic inequality began to grow. Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor at UC Berkeley has been doing a research for the U.S. income inequality. He states that there has been an increase since the 1970s, and has reached levels that have not been seen since 1928. “In 1928, the top 1% of families received 23.9% of all pretax income, while the bottom 90% received 50.7%. But the Depression and World War II dramatically reshaped the nation’s income distribution, by 1944 the top 1%’s share was down to 11.3%, while the bottom 90% were receiving 67.5%, levels that would remain more or less constant for the next three decades. But starting in the mid- to late 1970s, the uppermost percent income share began rising dramatically, while that of the bottom 90% started to fall.”(DeSilver) Ever since then, economic inequality continues to increase, especially in the last three decades.
Income Inequality in America is a problem that’s been going on for decades, and many feel that it hardly exists, the many people that feel that way are highly uneducated, and seem to not really care about this tremendous problem that in one’s eyes really has no end in the near future, in fact it has been gradually rising and one feels that it’s just not fair. Unfortunately, there’s not much that can be done, only of course if the poor class of people decide to actually educate themselves and get a higher education. One says poor class, simply because that’s how they’re classified. There are five types of levels that Americans are classified as, and they are: 1. Upper Class, 2. Upper Middle Class, 3. Middle Class, 4. Working Class, 5. Poor.
In a research of Harvard professor 5000 people in America have opinion in how they think about the actual distribution of wealth in the U.S. and the 92 percent choose the ideal would be 20 percent and 20 percent the middle class. However, the reality is very far from it. “The poorest are not even registered, they are on the package change and the middle class is barely distinguished from the poor, even the rich between the 10 % and 20 % are worst off, only the top 10 % are better off. Only the one percent gets ten time higher and 40 % all the nation wealth. The bottom 80 % 8 out 10 people only has 7 % between them.1 % makes a quarter of the national income today”(you tube, 2015). All of this data reflex one of the truly perspectives in economy of the U.S. Not only people with low wages are the most affected, but also those who have good jobs and
There is no doubt that wealth inequality in America has been escalating quickly; the portion of total income earned by the top one percent has doubled since the beginning of the 1970’s. The wealthy are the main beneficiaries
Americans today live in a distinctly unequal society. Inequality is now wider than it used to be in the last century, and the division in income, wages, and wealth are broader than they are in other developed economies of the world. Wealth inequality is the imbalance of wealth or income within a society, and it is one of the most vital economic challenge the US is facing today because the distribution of wealth is more dispersed, making the inequality in wealth distribution at its highest. While the matter has been discussed for many years, the actual income disparity in the U.S. has heightened and is now verging on an extreme gap that portends to impede long-term economic growth. The huge gap between the wealthy and poor is squeezing the U.S. economy, the wealth gap threatens economic growth by diminishing social mobility and producing a less-educated workforce who are not able to compete in the global economy. unrestrained level of income inequality causes political pressures, it discourages trade, investment, and hiring. The present level of income inequality in the U.S. is shrinking GDP growth, and the world's largest economy is struggling to recover from the Great Recession.
Diversity within the United States has been growing progressively within the past century. About 36 percent of the U.S. population is a part of a minority group, according to the 2010 U.S. Census (CDC, 2017). According to the U.S. Census, a “majority-minority” country is projected by the middle of 21st century, resulting in the white population becoming less than 50% of the population (Elchoufani, 2018). Overall, the life expectancy and child mortality in the U.S. has bettered; however, the minority undergo unequal distribution of illness, disease, disability, and death in comparison to non-minority (CDC, 2017). According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), even with all the attempts help diminish health care disparities for minorities, the minorities continue to face these unequal disparities (BLH, 2015).
Amongst all of the presidential candidates of the 2016 race, one in particular stands above the rest. Bernie Sanders, running as a democrat, holds the highest capability to better the nation amongst all other candidates.
Superior authorities that are discriminatory and unequal to others because of ones status have shaped our society to the way it is now. To this day we still encounter income inequalities in the United States. Social inequality gap between who can afford the healthcare. Superior people who are in charge don’t make it easy for low-income families to afford healthcare. Minority groups hold far fewer net financial assets than whites. We are categorized in groups, upper class, middle class and lower class. When health is a service, the poor are more likely to experience illness caused by poor diet, to live and work in unhealthy environments, and are less likely to challenge the system. In the United States, a disproportionate number of racial minorities
What is Income Inequality? Well “Income Inequality is the unequal distribution” of family or individual wage over the different individuals in an economy. Income inequality is often showen up “as the percentage of income to a percentage of population” (Staff.) Income inequality creates and impacts the U.S. in different aspects, whether it is distinguished by “region, gender, education and social status” (Staff), as well as there are certain causes and potential solutions to resolve the problems that Income Inequality creates.
Imagine all the wealth in the United States. Roughly 84.9 trillion dollars, a pretty big number to wrap your mind around, right? Now imagine a third of that number concentrated into the hands of only 1% of the population of the United States. Not only would this seem unfair, but also immoral. Sadly, this unfortunate situation is a reality in the United States. Of all the political issues that face this nation, wealth inequality is often overlooked. This type of inequality is defined as the unequal distribution of assets among a population. The United States has one of the highest gaps between the upper and lower class out of other developed countries. Resolving this issue is a complicated
In Robert Reich documentary “Inequality for All” he makes a compelling discussion about the serious crises that the United States faces due the widening economic gap. He looks to raise awareness of the U.S. economic gap between the rich and poor. According to Reich the widening divide in America is real and growing. Income levels at the middle and labor class is stagnant and are at it’s lowest levels compared to upper class incomes since the beginning of WWII and is growing wider each year. Reich suggests that the economy runs more smoothly when the middle class has jobs with fair wages, when unions are strong, and when middle class workers have some extra money to spend if possible when the government uses the tax policy properly and when it raises the minimum wage regularly to control the income gap between labor and management. In other words Reich argues that economically healthy middle and labor class equality is the foundation of a thriving economy and is necessary to maintaining a sound national infrastructure and educational system within
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.
Capitalism has been the central force behind the growth of the United States’ progressive economy. Within such advanced economic system the chances of economic disparity are significantly high. In fact, over the past three decades there has being a steady increase in unequal wealth distribution among the economic classes. To sustain the current unequal wealth distribution among the classes of the American population, there are numerous factors that influence and shape this trend. For some members of the population it is alarmingly disturbing to know that recent statistics have shown that, “In the US [alone] the wealthiest 1% of its population owns more than the bottom 95 %” (Gutman). As for the difference in economic wealth, it resulted
Rittenberg and Tregarthen (2012) explains that Income inequality in the United States has increased over the last century. Rittenberg and Tregarthen (2012) have also shared data from the Congressional Budget Office that reveals between 1979 and 2007, the real average household income also taking into account government transfers and federal taxes that rose 62%. For the top 1% of the population, it grew 275%. For others in the top 20% of the population, it grew 65%. For the 60% of the population in the middle class, it grew a bit under 40% and for the 20% of the population at the lowest end of the income distribution, it grew roughly 18%. The data clearly shows that even though the United States is considered one of the wealthiest countries looking at these numbers it’s easy to tell that the citizens are having it