Wealth And Inequality In The United States

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Many proposals have been made over the years to close the gap of wealth and inequality that exists today in the United States. Most of those proposals are very controversial because they have focused on taking money directly from the upper class or 1% as they are known and distributing it either directly in the form of cash credits or indirectly in the form of other benefits to the remainder of the population. Some have proposed drastic spending cuts to either entitlement programs such as Medicare or food stamps or even defense programs in order to use the money we already have to close this gap. Opponents of this line of thinking say that there is no way to maintain the current standard of living for those low income persons who would be affected…show more content…
Many corporations are famous for never having paid taxes despite the huge sums of money they generate. The corporations argue that they provide the tax base by employing thousands of people and purchasing other goods and services. Understandably the top earning 1% and corporations appose these solutions as unfair and going against the principles that built this country into what it is today. They argue that is unfair to take what they have worked for and give it to those who have no earned it. Still others have suggested that affirmative action programs or quotas at medium to large corporations both public and private are the answer. They argue that the fastest way to write the wrongs of the past is to place people in schools and jobs in numbers that are more representative of the population. This approach has always led to resentment of those people who received this type of benefit by those who did not. They are seen by those who did not get there by affirmative action as not good enough and they are often looked down upon, even though they may be very talented. This practice also keeps out some deserving people that might be better suited to a particular job because there is no room due to a…show more content…
Clearly the total amount of money being spent on education is enormous and not the issue. So we must then look to how we are spending that money and why it is not producing results. What many Americans fail to grasp is that the failure in the US education system directly affects the standard of living in this country. Education lays the foundation for future economic growth Those countries that fall behind in education are also destined to fall behind economically which in turn will lead to steep declines in that countries standard of living and overall wealth. There must be a steady supply of highly educated population to go into new industries as they are created. The countries that can do the best job of filling those new industries are the countries that will prosper the most. This model has been the standard for centuries. As of 2013 the US middle class is no longer the most affluent in the world, sliding to second place behind Canada (nytimes.com). The fact that this country had such a strong middle class has always been a matter of national pride in the US. The unemployment rate in the US during 2014 has remained stable at around 6.6% (data.bls.gov). Despite this historic
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