Friday, January 20, 2012

Blog #1 The Wealth Gap - Inequality in Numbers


                Financial inequality is has been a growing problem for quite some time now however its getting more attention now than ever.  Over the last 28 years the average us income has increased by 62 percent, however that is not a good reflection of the average growth of American incomes.  The lower 20 percent income group has only grown 18 percent after tax income.  The 21-80 percent income group has grown 37 percent, the 81-99 percent group has grown 65 percent, and the top 1 percent has almost tripled with an enormous 275 percent growth.  This is not just a us problem, in Britain the already highest paid executives experienced a 49 percent increase last year alone, while the average pay increase for their employees has risen only 3 percent.   In the UK the top tenth of a percent was 90 times larger than the bottom 90 percent in 2007. 
           
                Income inequality can be good.  It can serve as a motivator for some to work hard, become more educated, and some jobs deserve more pay because the skill set required for the job is very valuable.  However at this extreme it is terrible.  The income inequality as it stands gives the rich so much power that they can set laws that benefit them and there increase in wealth threw lobbying.  The poor people are employed by rich and the rich get richer from the poor people’s work.  It’s hard to fight against this extreme income inequality because the poor people either aren’t educated or informed enough or they need those minimum wage jobs to eat and get by.  It’s almost a mild case of exploitation. 

No comments: