Friday, September 12, 2014

The Income Gap In America

By Kerri Stout


America is known to be one of the highest economies in the world but what many people do not know is that the number of poor people in the country is still on the rise. Even up until today income inequality in this country is still rising steadily. So for those who are interested to know, here are some facts about the income gap in America.

Now before discussing the economic situation of this country, it is very important to first define the meaning of income gap. Now in a nutshell, income gap is the big gap in equality between the number of rich people and the number of poor people in a country. If one would put it in easier terms, this would be the income bracket.

Now one would probably be more than familiar with the saying that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Now this is actually happening in America right now as majority of the wealth of the country is actually being taken by the rich. The middle class will also get a share but a low one, and the poor will be left with nothing.

Of course it is also very important to know as to why this would be the case. Now in a study that was made by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, they studied the wealth inequality situations of eighteen countries between the years 1975 and 2007. The country wherein the rich had the most benefits was indeed the United States.

In order to know why this is the case, one has to take a look at the active US market. Now it is common knowledge that the market of this country is a totally free market as it is a democratic country. This means that the wealth that is being generated by the people is not really monitored as the government would have little involvement with the market.

Of course this would raise the age old question as to whether this is actually a good thing or a bad thing for the country in the long run. Now most people would argue that people should earn just as much as they would work because it is fair. If a person would get their fair share of profits, then they will actually be more motivated to work and their spending power will increase.

Of course there is also the other side of the story which claims that a high rate of poverty or unemployment will not be good for the economy. Now the thing about this is that with an unemployment rate, the people will not have much spending power. Of course when this happens, the country will not be able to get taxes from everyone.

So as one can see, this income inequality is one of the controversial issues that have sprung up in the US. Clearly many people still have the mindset that people should earn as much as they work. However, it can also be seen that as the unemployment rate in the country goes up, the economic growth in the long term may take a turn for the worse.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment