This week in my political philosophy class, my professor asked the class, “why does the American dream exist?”

I jokingly responded that it’s a bourgeoise concept created to keep impoverished people motivated and to keep feeding into their wealth. She was not a fan of that answer, but I still question its truth now. Obviously, I was making an exaggeration calling the 1% in America the bourgeoisie, but there are reasons why there is such a high income disparity in the United States.

Economists theorize that the stock market, taxes, and distribution of wage may have resulted in the inequality of wealth. Since the 1970s, the inequality of wealth has been rapidly increasing. One would think that if this gap has been growing for almost 50 years, people would agree on the cause and how to combat it. However, the reasons I listed earlier, are reasons given by both parties.

Both parties have solutions to income inequality that the other group feels puts people at a disadvantage. A common democratic view is to tax the wealthy at a higher rate to try and move money throughout the market. The republicans disagree and say that this steals money from the rich. They argue that it should be up to the market to regulate itself, and the cycle continues of nothing really being done about the issue.

I learned that a majority of Americans don’t know that the top 1% owns 38.6% of the wealth. They also pay the most federal income tax, but that is because 43% of people are not applicable. This either means that they do not work, are retired, or do not earn enough to meet the pay bracket to pay income tax . They still pay Social Security Tax and Medicare and Medicaid, but a majority of these people make under $25,000 a year. That’s the real issue for me.

For me, it’s not as important how the US decides to combat income inequality, it is more so that something is done. It seems unfair to allow the bottom 90% of our nation to struggle, while the wealth continues to grow in the upper and middle classes. We need a way to change the fact that most children remain in the same social class as their parents. The economic mobility in the US continues to decrease and the American Dream becomes more unrealistic.

I agree that it’s not fair to take money from people who earned it, but that’s where the money is. If nothing is down about the wealth disparity, the economy will crash at some point. Without people willingly agreeing to help out the bottom 90%, this gap will continue to grow and more and more people will need government programs to support themselves. There needs to be a less partisan debate in order to correct the income gap. We need a tax system that allows growth within all income groups.

So, no. It’s not exactly the upper class controlling the lower classes. I would love it if you took a look at my additional readings this week, as there are a lot of sides to this issue. For this week, I want you to think about how the US should tackle the issue of income disparity.

How do you believe tax brackets should work?

Should the government be more or less involved in solving income inequality?

Do you believe the American Dream still exists?

Additional Readings:

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/10/wealth-inequali...

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32824770

http://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/2015/09/29/wha...

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-inte...

https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2017/d...

https://jobmarketmonitor.com/2012/07/11/the-americ...