The InCome Inequality Gap

The Income Inequality Gap

“The Gap” between the rich and the poor is threatening the United States’ economy more and more each day. In December of 2013, President Barack Obama called income inequality “the defining issue of our time” and stated that it is currently a bigger threat to the United States’ economy than the federal budget deficit. The growing gap between the rich and the poor is becoming disturbingly bigger and bigger, and as a country we must address this problem before it causes our country more harm than it already has.

Income inequality is the difference between groups of people and the distribution of wealth among them. According to the textbook, there are many theories as to what is responsible for the rising inequality gap, one being that as we advance technologically, employers replace factory workers and seek employees with a higher education, which in turn makes the job market much smaller for the average person. Other reasons for this dramatic expansion of the gap include globalization, industry deregulation, and the decline of unions. Income inequality is at its highest since the 1920s, with the richest 1% earning almost 50% of the country’s income, and the top 1% taking home about 25% of the country’s income.

This gap of income inequality has caused some major issues in our society and our economy. It has made it so that average people, workers, don't get the jobs that they deserve for working as hard as they do. It is simply unfair that people who work just as hard, don't get an equal opportunity to make money as the 1% does. This is a major flaw in our society, and it makes people feel helpless, which contributes to our other problem of unemployment among the American people. If we make this a democratic issue then economic equality will return.

The wealthiest people in the United States should be no where near 50 or 100 times richer than the average