My research was centered on the ever-widening wealth gap in the U.S. Most people have heard that the richest 5% of Americans hold two-thirds of the wealth. But did you know that the three richest people have more wealth than the poorest 50% of the population? The top 1% also hold over 60% of all stocks and only 5% of all debt. The gap is also constantly growing wider because, while the poor stimulate the economy, the rich just hoard more wealth. The top 1% have also payed less in taxes every year since the 1970’s, while at the same time exponentially increasing their profits. Just during the pandemic, while working-class people were struggling, America’s billionaire’s almost doubled their total net worth, from less than $3T in March 2020 to over $5T in October 2021.
Some questions I would like to address are:
- Why has the wealth gap grown so quickly starting from the 1970’s? One median income used to be enough to support a family, and now families struggle even with two people working.
- How are the 1% able to manipulate the system to pay less taxes than everyone else, while hoarding vast amounts of wealth? Are there ethical reasons why multi-billionaires are not taxed, even when they make more money than anyone can ever spend?
- How can the 200,000,000 poor people fight to close the wealth gap when, even combined, they have less resources than the 680 billionaires?
This is a very interesting topic, we all have heard of the wealth gap for decades. I agree with Olena about why the weather people are getting wealthy and why there aren’t any precautions about this situation.
Your topic is very interesting it makes me really think about how and why is there such a wide gap. As for your questions I think they are great. It isn’t based or yes and no questions.
This is a very interesting topic and like sometimes I wonder like when will this wide gap end and if not then how can we fix this issue?
I think that this topic is very interesting and that the increasing gap between the rich and the poor is quite big and continues to grow. Your first question is good but the other two might be a bit to focused.
Revised question:
Why has income inequality worsened so much since the 1980’s?