Income Inequality In The United States

Inequality generally refers to the disparity of wealth income and resources between different groups within a society. This is usually the idea of those in power continue to gain more wealth and resources while those in the lower class have limited resources. A wide range of social problems become present in societies with bigger income inequality differences between rich and poor. These include physical and mental illness, social conflict, lower levels of education, weaker community, and lower social mobility. Income inequality is something that continues to grow in the United States and it’s creating far-reaching consequences for society as a whole.

The Wealth and Inequality reader states how “In the early 1970s, U.S corporations and the …show more content…
“According to the standard indicators, the U.S economy saw a brief recession in 2000-2000 and has been recovering ever since”(Wealth Inequality 100). The federal government continues to help create the continuing gap of the nation's wealth into the wealthiest households. For example in “1999 just before the bubble burst, there were 7.1 million millionaire households. In 2005, there were 8.9 million households a record number” (Wealth Inequality 101). During this time period middle and working class citizen had a rough time surviving the economic decline while the wealthiest people continued to flourish. Policy makers like George Bush have also continued to create new inequality problems within society. For example in “2003 a tax cut that benefited only the wealthy reduce tax income divides from 39 percent 15 percent, effectively policy like is some of the central causes that added in the going shift of income away from the most households and toward the wealthiest ones” (Wealth Inequality 102). It also states how in “2003 the 6,126 households with incomes over 10 million saw their taxes go down by an average of 521,905 from this one tax cut alone” (Wealth Inequality 102). When wealth distribution becomes concentrated in a small number of hands, political power tends to become skewed in favor of a small wealthy group. Wealthy groups are able to manipulate government in their favor through both legal processes and corrupt practices. While middle class and working class groups have fewer opportunities to become educated or participate in the political process as economic means become increasingly limited. The concentration of wealth and resources further concentrates the political power of wealthy groups giving them the ability corrupt political

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