How the United States of America Can Be Improved in Regards to InCome Inequality?

How the United States of America Can Be Improved in Regards to Income Inequality?

Income inequality represents a major social issue that is affecting the low and median earners all over America.

The United States is affected by an economic crisis, and yet we see how the wage structure is constantly changing benefiting mostly the ones on the top. There is a vast change on corporations and financial industry, where a CEO now makes 262 times more than the average worker. As mention in The Great Divergent, “While this affects many industrialized democracies, income inequality is far greater in the U.S., resulting in a less upwardly mobile society” (The Great Divergent)

According to Bruce Bartlett, “The issue of income inequality hit a peak during the 1992 presidential campaign. Bill Clinton made a point of talking about it at almost every campaign stop, promising that, if elected, he would force the rich to pay their fair share. In formulating his case, he relied heavily on research by the economist Paul Krugman, as channeled through Sylvia Nasar, a reporter for the New York Times. One particularly inflammatory piece appeared on the front page of the Times on March 5, 1992. Citing Krugman as her source, Nasar wrote that during the 1980's, the top 1 percent of American families had received an astonishing 60 percent-three-fifths--of the aggregate national gain in after-tax income.“ (Bruce)

We can educate others, starting with our own family, to understand and analyze the way the government is handling the situation in regards of income inequality. We also need to educate ourselves, to find the power to make changes locally on our communities. As mention by Nouriel Roubini, “Any economic model that does not properly address inequality will eventually face a crisis of legitimacy. Unless the relative economic roles of the market and the state are re-balanced, public protests will become more severe, with social and political instability eventually harming long-term economic growth and welfare.” (Roubini)

The low and median earners in the United States have more opportunity of increase their income by obtaining a degree in a certify college or university. This will not resolve the differences, but it would help to improve the quality of life of poor families. As quoted in Gillian B. White’s article, Melissa S. Kearney, Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland, mention: “Increasing education isn't going to do anything to bring down the wages of the real top—or address rising inequality focused on the 1 percent—but it is what's needed to increase the position of those at the bottom. Those are two different problems.” (White)

Educating the people will not change the economy of the country and make the rich share wealth with the poor. It means that the poor, will have an opportunity to improve, and that is already a good change. As Michael Goodwin once mention, “Income equality. That would be utopia. The only answers offered are massive tax hikes and more entitlements to spread the wealth around. First, the only thing “equal” in America is the guarantee of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Opportunity is equal, outcomes are not.” (Goodwin)

Unfortunately, our country has become less of a middle-class nation in the past decades. The middle –class families have found themselves struggling to get by. It is the time for policymakers to take action, to develop a plan to reverse this economic crisis, is time to boost middle-class incomes and to ensure that the essentials of a middle-class lifestyle remain affordable. Doing so will help rebuild the middle class so that all workers - not just those at the very top - can benefit from America’s future economic growth.

According to Stuart Butler, analysts use a term, "inter-generational mobility," to compare the inflation-adjusted incomes and wealth of individuals with those of their own parents. As demonstrated in the Pew Charitable Trust's Economic Mobility Project, an average of 84% of Americans today -across all levels of the income distribution- has higher incomes than their parents did at the same age, adjusted for inflation. Moreover, 93% of Americans whose parents were in the bottom quin tile exceed their parents' incomes as adults today. (Butler)

What worries some economists and resonates with many Americans, however, is the idea of "relative mobility," in which the income of a household over time is compared with other households. Relative mobility captures the ease with which a family can move from, say, the 18th percentile of the income distribution to the 71st. Put another way, the more a society is characterized by relative mobility, the more likely it is to produce rags-to-riches stories. (Butler)

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