Causing Inequality In America

The poor people are having a hard time keeping up because of the amount of money being brought home by way of the low wages of the have nots. As West and Smiley (2012) stated, “There is this gap between the have and the have-not, a growing gap, in fact. The well to do, people, seems to be putting more in their pocket, whereas, the average and poor just have enough to keep a roof over their head. “When 1 percent of the people control 42 percent of the country’s wealth-own and control 42 percent of the wealth and that’s a problem” (p. 7 & p. 35). The percentage of 42 percent control by the elite shows they are in control. As Koechlin (2013) has written “It is a policy that is causing inequality, not the market alone. Tax policy, deregulation, and the failure to raise the minimum wage” (p. 5). This is how policy changes trap …show more content…
The rich do not want to end poverty because it is another means of free work and less money to pay for productivity. Poverty affects a large number of children and African American. Koechlin (2013) says, “The unemployment rate for black workers is twice that of white workers” (p. 5). Koechlin expressed African American earning is 61 percent less than his counterparts. Therefore, children are poor because their family members no longer have a job or a good paying job. It has been well written that our country is one the most unequal rich country in the world Koechlin (2013). However, Maag, Steuerle, Chakravarti, and Quakenbush (2012) wrote the “High marginal tax rates can make moving above poverty very difficult for low income families” (p. 759). Therefore, the high-rise on the cost of living is not helping matters because of increase taxes, increase in food