Analysis Of Income Inequality In The United States

In the Declaration of Independence are the words “all men are created equal”. However, more than two hundred years later, this is still a concept that the United States of America struggles to uphold. One of the most noticeable and growing inequalities today is income inequality. This depends largely on the contemporary american class structure, which uses things like education, income, and careers to determine whether an individual has high, middle, or low socioeconomic status. In America, one percent of the population holds more than one third of the entire country’s wealth, including consumer durables and financial assets (Mantsios 179). There is a large gap between the working class and the upper class and it is continuously growing larger. In 1978, the typical member of the “one percent” made $345,380 more than the average male worker. By 2010, that had skyrocketed to $1,067,338 more than the average male worker. (Reich). Thirty years ago, the middle class male made just over 12% of what someone in the top one percent did; today …show more content…
There are many possible solutions to income inequality, but like most problems, there is no answer that will please one of them. One possible solution is to make public college free, or much more affordable. This will allow more lower and middle class Americans to get a post-secondary education, making them more qualified for higher paying jobs. Another possible solution is that of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders who believes in a “progressive tax system that is based on ability to pay”. This could be beneficial because it helps control the growth of the upper class and helps to fund programs meant to help the lower classes. Both of these would have to go through congress and the president, but they would help to slow down the increase in the income gap while helping to counteract