Aisha Barfield
Blood
5/26/15
English 803
The Wealth is Unequal
As the rich become more rich, and the middle class is a constant depletion the world is suffering from a rising inequality. The French Enlightenment philosopher Montesquieu identified “real equality” as the soul of democracy, but acknowledged that in practice republics could only “fix the differences to a certain point.” Those who constructed the idea of American democracy shared a concern that political factions arising from deep class divisions and “unequal distribution of property,” in the words of founding father James Madison, could undermine democracy. Throughout the 19th century the United States had no income tax. But the industrial revolution, which created a small class …show more content…
As late as 1919, Irving fisher, president of the American Economic Association, expressed alarm that the top 2 percent owned more than 50 percent of the wealth while two-thirds of the population “owns almost nothing.” Politicians calling themselves “Progressives,” including Republican Theodore Roosevelt, railed against monopolies for stifling competition and for treating workers badly. “The absence of effective state . . . restraint upon unfair money-getting has tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power,” charged Roosevelt in 1910. Roosevelt, president from 1901 to 1909, championed an estate tax in 1910 to prevent extreme accumulation of wealth, which, along with a graduated income tax, became a key stump in the Republican Party, only to later on to ratify th 16th Amendment which allowed to place an income tax. To follow that after the great depression Roosevelt eventually raised the income tax to 93 % for those who made over 200,000 dollars a year to insure financial equality by 1986 the Regan tax reform dropped the income tax to 23 % which explains the increasing gap between the rich, and the poor. The gap between the rich, and the poor, threatens democracy because the wealthiest Americans control a …show more content…
The top 1 percent those with annual incomes of more than $394,000 saw their incomes grow by 31 percent as Glazer states “… in the three years following the end of the recession, compared with a less than 1 percent gain for the other 99 percent.” Only to result in the upper 1 percent holding 95% of the country’s income. Some may argue that this is not a problem at all because studies to show that although the gap between wealth inequality continues to grow the living conditions for the middle class have improved, yet they fail to realize that this is indeed a huge problem because government policies only support the rich resulting in weak unions, weak oversight of financial markets, and purposely overlooking the exploit of executive pay. Allowing the rich to have 95% of the country’s
Blood
5/26/15
English 803
The Wealth is Unequal
As the rich become more rich, and the middle class is a constant depletion the world is suffering from a rising inequality. The French Enlightenment philosopher Montesquieu identified “real equality” as the soul of democracy, but acknowledged that in practice republics could only “fix the differences to a certain point.” Those who constructed the idea of American democracy shared a concern that political factions arising from deep class divisions and “unequal distribution of property,” in the words of founding father James Madison, could undermine democracy. Throughout the 19th century the United States had no income tax. But the industrial revolution, which created a small class …show more content…
As late as 1919, Irving fisher, president of the American Economic Association, expressed alarm that the top 2 percent owned more than 50 percent of the wealth while two-thirds of the population “owns almost nothing.” Politicians calling themselves “Progressives,” including Republican Theodore Roosevelt, railed against monopolies for stifling competition and for treating workers badly. “The absence of effective state . . . restraint upon unfair money-getting has tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power,” charged Roosevelt in 1910. Roosevelt, president from 1901 to 1909, championed an estate tax in 1910 to prevent extreme accumulation of wealth, which, along with a graduated income tax, became a key stump in the Republican Party, only to later on to ratify th 16th Amendment which allowed to place an income tax. To follow that after the great depression Roosevelt eventually raised the income tax to 93 % for those who made over 200,000 dollars a year to insure financial equality by 1986 the Regan tax reform dropped the income tax to 23 % which explains the increasing gap between the rich, and the poor. The gap between the rich, and the poor, threatens democracy because the wealthiest Americans control a …show more content…
The top 1 percent those with annual incomes of more than $394,000 saw their incomes grow by 31 percent as Glazer states “… in the three years following the end of the recession, compared with a less than 1 percent gain for the other 99 percent.” Only to result in the upper 1 percent holding 95% of the country’s income. Some may argue that this is not a problem at all because studies to show that although the gap between wealth inequality continues to grow the living conditions for the middle class have improved, yet they fail to realize that this is indeed a huge problem because government policies only support the rich resulting in weak unions, weak oversight of financial markets, and purposely overlooking the exploit of executive pay. Allowing the rich to have 95% of the country’s