Author: Rahat Mahmud

The unequal distribution of wealth in America has been a controversial issue for decades now and is one of the most significant problems that our generation must face. Over the years, it has been observed that the wealth of those at the bottom have experienced little to no growth while the wealth of those at the top has risen dramatically. Have the wealthy CEOs and rich individuals simply been working that many times harder or is there something else at play here? The Occupy Wall Street Movement, which happened a few years back in 2011, sought to not only take action against income and wealth inequality but also against the corruption and enormous influence that large corporations have on our government. Ultimately, our government is unable to pass comprehensive laws regarding these issues due to the might of Wall Street and the billionaire class.

This has led to several weaknesses in different aspects of our government that the wealthy can take advantage of. The Panama Papers, which were released one year ago, exposed the methods by which the very wealthy elite could conveniently store away billions of dollars that would go uncollected by our flawed tax system. This corruption has gone on for far too long but a strong, effective solution to these problems has not yet been adopted. One such proposal by the French economist Thomas Piketty suggests a global tax on all forums of wealth and assets (trusts, partnerships, and stocks) but this idea has drawn controversy because it would lead to having more rich individuals who would spend money a lot more money on themselves rather than investing and helping others. Another proposal, this time by Professor Jacob Hacker of Yale University, suggests raising the top tax rate on the very rich to 45% if their income is between one and ten million or 49% if their annual income is over one billion. This idea would probably cause many large companies to minimize their enormously high pay packages for those at the top of the company. In my opinion, while these might not exactly be the best solutions to the wealth inequality problem in America, it might be a step in the right direction. It’s better to take action than to sit around and do nothing while people keep suffering.

New York is a state with the second largest homeless population in the United States, and we know it all too well. From the homeless men and women on the streets who stay out in the cold, to the people who are stuck in homeless shelters for years without sufficient assistance to get them back on their feet, the issue of homelessness is one that we have acted against but have not been able to solve.

The issue of homelessness is complex – while poverty may be the prime cause of homelessness, there are many things that cause poverty. The lack of a high-quality education for everyone regardless of their socioeconomic background, the lack of jobs due to a stagnating industry, or even social issues like the abuse of drugs or certain mental illnesses make it extremely hard for people to maintain jobs and pay for housing. It’s even worse as the issue of housing discrimination is very prevalent and has been here for decades. For instance, African Americans have been blocked from moving into majority white neighborhoods for decades now, and while fair housing laws have been passed, the issue is still largely there. Professor Douglas Massey from Princeton University states that an alarming one-third of African Americans living in cities are in fact living in highly segregated neighborhoods.

The government itself hasn’t been able to do much in reducing racial segregation in housing. The Section 8 Voucher Program, which provides assistance to low-income families in dire need of housing does try to solve the issue, but it falls short. The waiting list for it is as large as 25,000 in a city like St. Louis and there is a rental cap imposed that makes it hard for families to find decent homes. Furthermore, landlords do not necessarily have to accept these tenants because while the city enforces the law, the county does not. When it comes to the federal level, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development has also not quite done absolutely all they can to minimize the issue of housing discrimination in the US. Like Professor Jargowsky has said, “they work so much with the housing authority, and the housing authority works with the developers.” Instead of the people’s needs being met, they appear to be shoved aside.

HUD has not done so well regarding homelessness either. While their assessments have pointed out that homelessness has indeed dropped since the recession in 2007, it fails to take into account the many people who have come up with their own refuges outside of the formal housing shelters such as those who have “doubled up” or in other words, have been staying with different family members or friends. To me, it seems like the problem of homelessness is being grossly underrepresented and while the issue is definitely hard to solve, we shouldn’t be pretending that we are solving it by skewing the numbers.