Social Inequality In The United States

In his State of the Union Address, President Obama discussed an array of topics from diplomacy in Iran, relations with Cuba and the fight against ISIS. However; the president’s address seemed to have centered on the topic of income inequality and social mobility. With the struggle of economic and social equivalency between the rich, middle class and the poor being incredibly drastic from one another, there is no surprise that the topic of social inequalities was a sticking point to the president’s discourse. With the U.S. income gap at its highest level since the Great Depression (LATimes) there is no easy solution as to what can be done to fix this problem and it is indeed a problem. Inequality has increased dramatically within the past 30 years. According to an article in the LA Times the average income of the top 1% surged 275% from 1979 to 2007. It rose only 18%, however, for the bottom fifth of the population. Seven in ten people born into the working class cannot reach the middle class and 45% express doubt about the ability to get ahead through hard work, twice the level of 2002(LATimes). Although the economy has gotten better in recent years those who have benefited most from the recovery have been those in the 1%. …show more content…
For the past 30 years the middle class and the poor’s economic mobility within the U.S. has not gotten significantly worse, however it is a problem that it has not gotten better. One idea President Obama proposed to help bridge the income gap is to raise the capital gains tax; that is the difference between what is paid for an investment and what is received when that investment is sold from 23.8 percent to 28 percent. This would help bridge the gap by giving back to the middle class and the