There are 756 billionaires living in America. This is more than in any other country in the world. America’s wealth distribution is the least equal it has been since the early 1900s, a period of turmoil and poverty in the United States. Today, the top ten percent of Americans have more than 60 percent of the total wealth in the U.S.. The bottom 50 percent have one percent. One percent of household wealth in America is divided between 165 million people. Today’s one percent is the richest in history, and the poor are the poorest since the Great Depression.
These problems stem from the American ideal of capitalism. Laissez-faire economic values indicate that the harder one works and the smarter they are, the richer they will become, and only the lazy and unmotivated will ever be impoverished. However, the idea of “earning” one billion dollars is simply ridiculous. One would have to find a job in which they are paid one dollar for every second of the day. This totals to 86,400 dollars a day. They would then have to work this job nonstop for 32 years to reach a billion dollars. So the concept that one could possibly earn that kind of money is absurd.
Despite this, according to a study by Pew Research Center, most Americans view socialism negatively. Even a slightly more even wealth gap would virtually eradicate poverty. Higher taxes on the rich and lower taxes on the poor sound like a scary concept to most middle class Americans with a decent income who fear that these taxes will impact them. But these same people don’t even register as rich on today’s wealth curve. Taxes like that will truly only affect the richest of Americans, and they will benefit more than 95 percent of the population.
Even with increased tax revenue from these changes, the methods of government spending need adjustment. Nearly 25 cents for every tax dollar the government receives goes directly to military spending; however, less than five percent of the military budget actually goes to funding our troops in the form of payment and housing. The rest is paid to private military contractors, businesses that aren’t affiliated with the government directly. The U.S. spends more on our military than any other country, but our funding for public transportation, healthcare and affordable housing is also extremely high. So how come we don’t have free healthcare? Because the United States gives a significant amount of that money to subsidize private healthcare companies instead of paying for citizens’ bills directly.
It’s clear; use of wealth in the world’s richest country is a serious concern. We as citizens must exercise our right to vote and change the way our tax dollars are paid and spent. Until then, our culture of consumerism and capitalism will continue to impact the majority of the population, leaving the richest richer and the low and middle class worse off.
