The Context Of Growing Economic Interdependence

Gary Becker’s and Kevin Murphy’s article, “The Upside of Income Inequality”, analyzes the positive effects of the income gap, and Paul Krugman’s New York Times column, “Confronting Inequality”, stresses the negative impact of the income gap; it is apparent by juxtaposing these two texts that income inequality can be effected by economic development, education, and social equality.

It is a commonly accepted that inequality is increasing throughout the globe, with startling statistics such as the recent Oxfam report indicating that the richest 85 people in the world own more wealth than the poorest 3.5 billion people(Oxfam Australia Media, 2014). Inequality is thought of as disparities or gaps, such as the distance between a low income and a high income household, or the ratio of their incomes (Divided We Stand, 2011). Domestic inequality refers to inequality within a country and

The wealth gap is a problem that which the hard working people of America know very little about. Using Ignorance towards this problem does not cease its existence of it but rather contributes to growth because it’s not being addressed. It’s a problem that seems to affect mainly the minorities of the U.S. population, such as Blacks and Hispanics. However, not everyone is in the dark about this lingering ever

Vermont Senator and presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, said it best when he said “A nation will not serve morally or economically when so few have so much, and so many have so little.” This quote perfectly describes the issue that The United States is currently dealing with: income inequality. Income inequality is the gap between how much money is made by the rich and everyone else in the nation. It also refers to the unequal distribution of wealth among people in a population. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the gross domestic product (GDP) in the United States has steadily been rising, making it seem as though economic growth is stable (Inequality for All). However, it does not take into account the increasingly widening gap between the 1% and the 99% of the nation’s population. Government officials should pay closer attention to income inequality in The United States because ignoring the issue ultimately hurts American citizens.

In this paper I will be discussing the wealth gap. I will also be discussing if there should be a “special” tax to redistribute the wealth. I hope to enlighten the reader of the issue of the wealth gap, and if a tax would help.

The gap between the rich and poor in the United States is constantly growing, due to the fact that minimum wage is low for the poor but not for the rich. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. There is no gray area in this situation. According to A Project of The Institute for Policy Studies, “The top 0.1 percent is taking in over 184 times the income of the bottom 90 percent.” There

The United States wealth inequality gap is one of the largest gaps in the world. According to the article Causes of Poverty by Anup Shah, “ Almost

The higher the difference in inequality, the weaker the econom actually becomes (Lowrey 15). The economy reaches an unstable point and people tend to become mistrusting with their own government. The inequality "blocks opportunities at the bottom and shelters those at the top" (Esping-Andersen n.p.). In other words, it is extremely hard for people who live in poverty to work their way up the economic system and have better opportunities and chances for themselves to take. The people that are already rich and living life with no problems, do not even have to waste a second thought on what would happen if they ran out of money, because they know for a fact that it would never happen. Also, the economic struggles would lead to slower economic growth and slower job creation (Lowrey 15). If people do not want to take the jobs because they do not see a point, people are going to start shortening jobs and limiting the amount of people that they hire. Political instability, violence, and economic destruction will also start to take effect, even if it is not noticable

The wealth gap, or wealth inequality, is the uneven distribution of wealth within the United States. The gap in the United States is one of the largest gaps between the rich and the poor out of most developed countries. The wealth gap is impossible to ignore when “income inequality has been increasing steadily since the 1970s, and now has reached levels not seen since 1928.” (D. Desilver, 2013)

The specifics of policy choices are an important issue, and these choices can be analyzed thoroughly and theoretically. Economic inequality is the difference in numerous measures of economic security between individuals of a group, groups in a population, or countries. Economic inequality can also be referred to as income inequality. Bartels describes issues about economic inequality including how poorly some groups are represented. The poor are barely represented, if at all, because their lack of funds and resources usually only influence the majority of politicians to ignore the poor. When considering the poorer population, representatives do not even bother to consider the poor because some members of congress or senators might not believe that those certain low income groups do not have enough money to be acknowledged. There is a definite political unfairness because of how unevenly certain income groups are

Inequality, a subject that usually focuses on developing countries or communistic governments, is now a topic that no longer focuses predominantly on these foreign nations; but rather one that lies here, on our own soil. The United States has one of the largest socioeconomic gaps on earth. In terms of dollars, our gap is greater than a majority of impoverished countries. In a country like Chad, someone could earn a thousand dollars a year and another

It can be argued that the trend for global inequality is that “The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.”

Income inequality has been a major concern around the world, and it mainly links to how economic metrics are distributed among individuals in a country. Economists generally categorise these metrics in wealth, income and consumption. Wilkinson and Picket (2009) showed in their studies that inequality has drawbacks that lead to social problems. This is because income inequality and wealth concentration can hinder or delay long term growth. In 2011, International Monetary Fund economists showed that less income inequality increased the duration of countries’ economic growth spells more than free trade, low government corruption, foreign investment or low foreign debt (Berg and Ostry, 2011).

Inequality in the society has been an issue since the history of the universe and as we think we are bridging the gap between the rich and the poor we always find out that it is as a wide as it was. The poor will always exist in the society as the inferior group while the rich are the superiors who control various aspects and sectors of the society.

Firstly, the authors express that the wealth gap is one of the key issues that causes poverty and creates an abundance of inequality. Brink Lindsey, the vice president for research at the Cato Institute, writes “As of 2003, 80 percent of high school seniors from families in the top 20 percent of income enrolled in