You might still remember the Occupy Wall Street Movement back in 2011. The movement centered on the economic inequality in American as CQ Reader’s Chapter 10 has explored as well. As the world becomes more globalized, many jobs can be done in various countries separately. This also has a profound effect on wages of typical workers. Economic Policy Institute found that, “Since the 1970s, wages for the bottom 70 percent of earners barely grew even as corporate profits rose and as income for the top 1 percent increased 156 percent…” This is not a good news for low and middle class. People struggled to meet the monthly end, while the rich are spending time on the sunny beach enjoying life. So what makes America so unequal and how can we change that?

Historically, people with the most power tend to be richer than others. They hold down money and land from previous generations and make investment on top of it. They grow money with money with different investments or simply interests in the banks. CQ Reader states that, “According to Forbes’ global billionaires list, the top wealth holders have seen their holdings rise at 6 to 7 percent per year from 1987 to 2013.” The wealth holders are not just only working on high paying job, but their money can increase by sitting there. The wide gap in wealth eventually lead to further inequality in economy across all classes. More wealth for a family means the children can afford to go to well-funded public or private schools. With the top education, they can make into prestigious universities and head into international firms. On the other hand, middle or lower class are struggling to pay every bills. Their children might not be able to receive the best education. Often time, some kids need to work during school time to support their families. They are less likely to receive college education than the rich kids. The domino effect affects many generation and lead us to the situation today. As the cycle continues, the rich invests into the economy where the middle and lower class have no access too. The trickle-down theory does not work when the lower class’s wage is staggering. People does not receive the same benefit as the rich does.

I personally believe a huge part of inequality in this country has to do with the old tax system. The tax system has not been updated for centuries. The income brackets are not up to current income situation. The top 1 percent sometimes pay less tax than the middle class because they have various ways to avoid tax or transfer the money oversea to these tax haven. The middle class is struggling to nature their families while paying all the taxes. The country is built upon the strong middle class; we cannot let the middle class to disappear. However, the rich has the money to pay to the government to help out different programs. Some economists argue the economy will be worse if the rich gets tax more. I completely disagree on this. It might be true that the rich invest the most into the current economy and ask for more service. But the real question is how much does these get pass onto the normal people? Are we benefitting from their investments other than getting jobs that are paid in minimum wage? A country cannot be prosperity with a small amount of people. The middle class is the real source of better economy.