Inequality Is Holding Back the Recovery

This article was about the re-election of President Obama and the inequality within us that is causing troubles to our economy. With inequality at its highest level since before the Depression, a healthy and strong recovery will be difficult in the short term, and the American dream — a good life in exchange for hard work — is slowly dying.  The article also discussed four reasons why inequality is squelching the recovery process. 

The first one being that the middle class is too weak to support the consumer spending that had been before, driving the economic growth. The second reason being that the hollowing out of the middle class means that people in that class won't be able to invest in their future. The third reason is the weakness of the middle class is holding back tax receipts, especially because those at the top are so adroit in avoiding taxes and in getting Washington to give them tax breaks. And the fourth reason is that inequality is associated with more frequent and more severe boom-and-bust cycles that make our economy more volatile and vulnerable.

All in all, with Obama is having a hard time keeping up with unemployment and other lingering affects of the recession. Recent studies have also proven that this is affecting the younger generation of adults because student debt can almost never be wiped out. So while incomes are falling, tuitions are soaring. The article also discussed that we could have made sure that every young person was either in school, in a training program or on a job. Instead, we let youth unemployment rise to twice the national average. The inequality among our social and economic classes is what's really hurting our growth and recovery to get out of this recession. 


http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/19/inequality-is-holding-back-the-recovery/

Kayla Gammie
4:36 pm
2/8/13