Unfair Income Inequality in the United States

I am writing to you out of concern of the income inequality that is present in our society today. Were you aware that according to the U.S Census, “​The highest 5% of income earners hold almost 22% of household income; the highest 20% of income earners hold almost 50%”(Barkan Ch.2). Here in the United States we have the largest inequality gap of any industrialized nation between the rich and the poor( In fact, the income gap between the poor and the rich has only been increasing, and if this trend continues it will decrease the quality of life for many americans(Eitzen Section 3).

You may think this isn’t a problem, but you’d be surprised of the effects this has. In 2005, 36.9 million americans lived in poverty, and 12.8 million of those were children under the age of 18.

It infuriates me seeing these numbers, especially because I know that this could have been prevented. A theory that helps make sense of this is ​Marxist conflict theory​​.

This states that society is in a state of constant struggle due to competition over resources. The upper class, the wealthy, and the lower class, the poor, are always in conflict.

The people who own the wealth and businesses try and suppress the poor to maintain their hierarchy status. The people at the top only have one goal, and that is to maintain their wealth and they do so at the expense of the working class. As a result the upper class exploits the lower class and if the working class and poor continue to be subjected to worsening conditions, a​ political revolution​​ may start.

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People didn’t magically begin to lose their income and become poor, this happened by design. Over the years the United States has implemented policies that help the rich get richer and keep the poor impoverished(Eitzen Reading 7).

Individuals should not be blamed for this, instead we should ​blame the system. ​​The system was designed to maintain a status quo that reflects a ​capitalistic​​ economy. That is, that in our society the means of productions are privately owned by few people, and is operated by a profit driven system(Sociology pptx). In our society we have experienced a problem known as capital flight​​ due to corporations outsourcing manufacturing jobs from our economy. Due to this an estimated 5.5 million americans lost their jobs(Barkan Ch.12). The corporations knew that ​outsourcing​​ jobs would result in the lost of jobs for millions of americans, but frankly they didn’t care. Their only motive is to make more money.

In 2006, the Federal budget decreased medicaid spending by $10 billion, and gave $131 billions in tax cuts to the wealthy(Eitzen Section 2, Poverty). Tax policies implemented in the U.S clearly favor the wealthy, because tax rates for capital gains have been lowered to 15%, meanwhile ​the top tax rate for income from salaries and wages is 35 percent (Barkan Ch.2).​This is a clear cut example of the poor getting poorer and the rich getting richer. Labor unions have all been drastically declining here in the U.S.

With these unions in decline, many americans are left without protection for their rights and interests. U.S labor laws have so many loopholes that corporations can easily exploit the judicial system and can appeal against the workers vote to become a union. These cases can than take years in the courts to be resolved. Labor unions typically lead to a middle class lifestyle, which is no surprise why the middle class in diminishing and the lower class is increasing.

I have discussed several problems on the topic of income inequality, and it is now time to talk about a solution. In order to find a solution we should look at the European Social Model.​​ The remedy our country needs is a complete overhaul of our economy