Debate this: Income inequality
The greatest threat to democracy is economic inequality. Over the past 40 years, economic inequality has been on the rise. The United States has always been a nation with a large portion of the population owning a small portion of the wealth while the top one percent owns the majority of the wealth. The true test of our progress is not if we add more to those that have much but rather if we add more that have little.
When politicians throw around the phrase “redistribute the wealth” it is met with harsh words and it is usually dismissed with little thought and little debate. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is the first member of Congress to be an open Democratic Socialist and he has been able to bring left-wing politics into the lime light in this nation. However, the Vermont Senator is not the only American that speaks out against the massive economic inequality that we face in this nation; he is just the first to gain nation recognition.
As of 2012, the top one percent of America owns 40% of the nations wealth while the other 99% owns the other 60%. The bottom 80% is reported to own only 7% of the nations wealth. What this means is that the top 20% of the nation owns 93% of our nations wealth. This is not democracy. The top 1% takes home 24% of the nation income today. Almost a quarter of the national income is in the hands of a select few.
Economic inequality has always been an issue in this nation but over the past few decades it has become an issue that can no longer be ignored. It is an issue that both Democrats and Republicans agree we must address and fix. The methods that the two main parties advertise may be different but they have the same goal in mind. The main Republican argument is a top down approach most well known as “trickle down economics”. What this means is that the wealth that the top one percent has accumulated will eventually “tickle” down the socioeconomic ladder and into the pockets of the average hard working American. The Democratic alternative is a more bottom up approach where the more you make will equate to how much you pay in taxes. Under the Democratic plan, the richer Americans will pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than than those that make less than them.
Millions of hard working Americans would like to see a change in the way that our nation distributes our wealth. All of us regardless of political party want the same things, for our children to go to college, to live happy and healthy lives free from the fear of debt, poverty and hunger. Yet millions of us live with these fears everyday. The solution to economic inequality may be difficult to achieve but it is a goal that we must achieve if we are to be a truly great nation.
— Adam Hunt is the President of the College Democrats