The Problem Of Inequality In The United States

Something that has been a difficult question for the recent years, that has been heard in political debates, campaigns, etc. is, should The United States increase taxes. That is a difficult thing to answer and the citizens of The United States has asked this before, and the government did in the 1940’s at first to fund FDR’s radical ideas to pull us out of the great depression. So by the time of the 1950’s The United States had a tax bracket that was along the lines of 20 percent to 91 percent. The United States should increase the tax bracket from the current state of 10 percent to 36.9 percent back to

Income concentration in United States has changed along with the spending patterns of the individuals. This has induced and widened the pay gap between the wealthy and the middle class. One individual’s demand is now another’s necessity which is why the income ladder is hard to grab now. Although financial aid by the government does help the middle class students to acquire good quality education, but this is not enough as the wealthy can get what they want even if they possess lesser prospects.

The United States of Inequality is an article that delves into the harsh realities we face in our country today, with regards to income inequality. Income inequality in the United States is at a rise. And the sobering factor is that so little is being done to address this issue. According to a new study by researchers at the Economic Policy Institute, forces of rising inequality are operating at an all-time high throughout the United States. The study, “which measures income inequality by state, metro area and county, shows that inequality has risen in every state since the 1970s.” It also shows that rising inequality is deep-rooted.  “Recessions in recent decades have temporarily slowed income growth among the top 1 percent, but they have not altered the basic pattern in which the rich have gotten much richer while nearly everyone else has seen income stagnate or decline (Tritch, "The United States of Inequality", 2016).” In all, the top 1 percent in the United States captured 85.1 percent of total income growth from 2009 to 2013. In 2013, the 1.6 million families in the top 1 percent made 25.3 times as much on average as the 161 million families in the bottom 99 percent.

Is the standard American adage of “if you just work hard enough, you’ll be rich” still true?

The United States Federal Government currently functions on a “progressive tax system”. A progressive tax system is based on ability to pay and therefor requires members of higher socioeconomic standing to pay higher federal income tax rates. The idea is that wealthy people, whether they are wealthy as a product of their own intelligence and labor or wealthy by inheritance, can afford to pay higher tax rates and still maintain a quality of life well beyond what is considered livable or even standard. This procedure understandably creates a lot of upset in the upper-class community. According to the IRS, in 2007, more that 44% of income tax revenues came from the top 5% of earners and more than 50% came from the top 10%. In the same year, the 400 wealthiest Americans, bringing in an average adjusted gross income of $345 million paid an average federal income tax rate of 17%, whereas the average tax payer during the same time period paid only 9.3% of their gross income to the federal taxes. In 2010, about 45% of all

In the constant debate over what should and should not be taxed and how much a person should have to pay in taxes, one issue remains constant. That is the question as to whether or not the U.S. should have a fair tax or a flat tax. This has been interesting for me because I hear a lot of debate on both sides about the legitimacy of both methods. There is an overwhelming feeling, fueled, in part, by the media, that wealthy Americans are not paying their fair share of taxes, when, in fact, that is not the case. In fact, an article from the directory About.com reports the following statistics from the Office of Tax Analysis: According to the Office of Tax Analysis, the U.S. individual income tax is "highly progressive," with a small group of higher-income taxpayers paying most of the individual income taxes each year. -In 2002 the latest year of available data, the top 5 percent of taxpayers paid more than one-half (53.8 percent) of all individual income taxes, but reported roughly one-third (30.6 percent) of income. -The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 33.7 percent of all individual income taxes in 2002. This group of taxpayers has paid more than 30 percent of individual income taxes since 1995. -Moreover, since 1990 this group 's tax share has grown faster than their income share. -Taxpayers who rank in the top 50 percent of taxpayers by income pay virtually all individual income taxes. In all years since 1990, taxpayers in this group have paid over 94 percent of all

Adding to the problems countries and people have to face around the world is a well talked and argued topic of economic inequality. To begin with, economic inequality can be defined as the division amongst the rich and the poor. Today inequality exists in minimum wage, taxes, etc. all of these forms of inequality can affect the well-being or family of a person. Like Pope Francis said, “The first task is to put the economy at the service of people. Human beings and nature must not be at the service of money” the economy inequality must be fixed whether it is through taxation or distributing minimum wage equally.

Pretty much everyone would agree that our current tax system is almost comically complicated, and that it is difficult if not impossible to accurately enforce. Despite evidence that the top 5% of earners pay about 60% of the income tax, many Americans readily believe that there are a

We do not live in an equal world, but we have made a lot of progress with inequality through races, women, gays, transgender and disabled. There is about is about 7 billion people in the world, 318.9 million in the U.S, and only 11.1% of people in the U.S will experience inequality in their lifetime. That's 28,000 people out of 318 million.

Did you know that 44 percent of the people in America do not pay any income taxes? This is approximately 66 million out of 151 million that now pay no income taxes. From 1950-1990, the percentage of people that owed no money for federal income taxes and paid no federal income taxes was 22 percent. This has now doubled and is putting our economy and country at its breaking point. Our current tax system penalizes those that work and save money. People who pay no taxes still get to enjoy the benefits. "A revolutionary change in our tax system is fundamental to re-energizing the American economy and restoring the American dream." (Moore) The United States income tax should be replaced with a consumption tax such as the flat tax to

Our current tax system is outrageously unjust. Most working people pay too much in taxes compared to corporations, multi-millionaires, and billionaires. Many of our biggest and most profitable corporations pay little or no tax. Most investment income is taxed at less than the rate of workers. Income disparities have become so pronounced that America's top 10 percent now averages nearly nine times as much income as the bottom 90 percent. Wages in the United States have been stagnating for more than three decades. Typical American workers and the nation's lowest wage workers have seen little or no growth in their real weekly wages. Since the mid-1980’s there has been an enormous transfer of wealth from the middle class and the poor to the wealthiest

It is a common believe that as the people of the United States we are free, and taxes are limited. Something that has come to the attention of the Government is we are running low on tax income. Taxes are a vital part of the United States and our way of life. Unfortunately the government of the United States believes that it’s tax revenue is substantially less than what they can pull out of the average citizens wallet. The problem is, they want to squeeze every last dollar out of American Citizen.

People have said for years that the only two things inevitable in this world are death and taxes. Indeed, any legitimate national government has the power to tax its people in some fashion. It is a complicated issue that experts continue to debate to this day. Higher taxes do not necessarily mean a prosperous economy. In fact, more times than not, high taxes hurt the economy. The United States should implement a flat tax policy that is based on biblical principles, because it is fair for all across the board, because it will increase revenue by discouraging tax evasion, and because the flat tax form is much simpler to understand.

“The present treatment, which imposes no limit on the portion of his income that an individual may exclude from tax, results in an unfair distribution of the tax burden. This treatment results in large variations of the tax burdens placed on individuals who receive different kinds of income. In general, high-income taxpayers, who get the bulk of their income from personal services, are taxed at high rates. On the other hand, those who get the bulk of their income from such sources as tax-exempt interest and capital gains or who can benefit from accelerated depreciation on real estate pay relatively low rates of tax. In fact, individuals with high incomes who can benefit from these provisions may pay lower average rates of tax than many individuals with modest incomes. In extreme cases, individuals may enjoy large economic incomes without paying any tax at all,” (U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation and Committee on Finance, 1969).

The top 20 percent of income earners pay almost 100 percent of the income taxes in this country. That means 80 percent of the population pays almost no income taxes (a full 50 percent pay ZERO income tax).