FREE ESSAY ON INEQUALITY IN AMERICA

INEQUALITY IN AMERICA

I believe that there is too much wealth and income inequality in the United States 
today. The upper classes have most of the power in the nation and use their influence and
wealth to convert the United States income into benefiting their well being and financial
stability. In the last fifteen years, the income of the upper classes has risen while the
income of the lower classes
has generally lowered, further showing the inequality that exists in our nation. It is
usually difficult for the lower classes to achieve financial success because a high
income job requires good education which the lower classes lacks because they cannot
afford it. 
In the United States there are four social classes : the upper class, the middle class,
the working class, and the lower class. Of these four classes the most inequality exists
between the upper class and the lower class. This inequality can be seen in the incomes
that the two classes earn. During the period 1979 through the present , the growth in
income has disproportionately grown.The bottom sixty percent of the US population
actually saw their real income decrease in 1990 dollars. The next 20% saw medium gains.
The top twenty percent saw their income increase 18%. The wealthiest one percent saw
their incomes rise drastically over 80%. As reported in the 1997 Center on Budget's
analysis , the wealthiest one percent of Americans ( 2.6 million people) received as much
after-tax income in 1994 as the bottom 35 percent of the population combined (88 million
people). But in 1977 the bottom 35 percent had about twice as much after tax income as
the top one percent. These statistics further show the disproportional income growth
among the social classes. The growth of income should be proportioned or equal among the
classes, but the opposite is occurring where the rich are seeing immense gains while the
poor are seeing loses. The lower classes are not given the chance to climb economic
ladder.
Along with income inequality comes wealth inequality. In 1976 , the wealthiest one
percent of Americans owned 19% of all the private material wealth in the US Today, they
own over 40% of all wealth. Their share now exceeds the wealth owned by the bottom 92% of
the US population combined. (Edward N. Wolff, Top Heavy: A Study of Increasing Inequality
in America Twentieth Century Fund: 1995). From 1976 till the present , the power of the
wealthy has increased greatly meaning their power has increased as well. When a certain
group constantly gains power they will abuse it and this can be seen with the unfair
wealth distribution in this country. Although each person has the right to make as much
money as possible, in the United States the government should however keep the income
rise proportioned by taxing the wealthy more and the poor less. In recent years the
opposite happened where the taxes on the wealthy were cut from a top rate of 68% in 1980s
to 28.5% by 1988. The share of federal tax revenue paid by corporations has dropped from
33 cents of every dollar collected in 1953 to less than 10 cents today. (Donald Barlett
and James Steele: America: Who Really Pays the Taxes? Andrews and McMeel: 1995)
To explain the class differences in the United States I believe that the Davis-Moore
Thesis comes the closest. Davis and Moore state that certain jobs or professions that
require good education and knowledge should reward more by paying more whereas jobs that
can be done buy a person without much skill or education should pay less. This is true in
the United States to point. Of course doctors and lawyers make more than a store manager
for example , but many jobs such as being a president are not rewarded well, because a
basketball player or a celebrity can make millions more than a president. This is unfair
because carrying out the job of a president is a lot harder than acting or playing a
certain sport. If the Davis-Moore thesis actually been accepted by a society than the
president would probably make the most money. 
There are many people that think there is economic and wealth equality in the United
States , but with all the statistics I provided it can be clearly seen that inequality in
America is a serious issue , and it's getting worse with every year. I do believe that
there should be some income inequality because that drives people to succeed , but I also
believe that too much inequality limits a lot of people from achieving financial success.