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Is the Wealth Gap Widening Under Obama, Bernanke? - Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Is-the-Wealth-Gap-Widening-cnbc-340452063.html;_ylt=AhzOpKmcghozpe.G8EaeiXu7YWsA;_ ylu=X3oDMTFmYWlnbWcwBHBvcwMzBHNlYwNleHBlcnRPcGluaW 9uRHluYW1pYwRzbGsDaXN0aGV3ZWFsdGhn?x=0 - broken link)
The wealth gap continues to widen between the wealthy and the poor in the United States. Proof positive that it does not matter if they call themselves Democrats or Republicans, they all have the same agenda, and it is not to serve the interests of the people.
Surgeons and janitors should not be making the same amount of money. The cost of education, skills necessary, and all the work required to get upper income jobs is good reason to pay more to skilled workers.
I'm not a liberal, but I think we need to be concerned about the decline of the middle class in this country. I'm pretty comfortable, but my business, and countless other businesses around this country, depend on people actually being able to earn a decent income so they can participate in the economy. I don't think anyone here is talking about the difference between the salaries of a brain surgeon and a garbage truck driver, but we have a problem when we can't seem to create or keep jobs here for high school and undergraduate level workers that pay a living wage.
Why are neo-liberals so obsessed with the gap between rich and poor?
A wider gap between rich and poor is a reflection of your society. It only serves to hinder our human capital. If we had extreme poverty rates like in Nigeria, we could see more turbulence politically. We could also experience shrinking market of consumers (as what happened in apartheid South Africa, the market shrank). Our poor would not be able to advance with any potential new ideas since there would not be a decent system of education. A two tiered society is very unstable.
There is also the human aspect. We don't dictate what situations we are born into. We don't dictate the policies that enable us to thrive in any particular society. So why should we stifle the poor and give benefits only to the rich? They aren't inherently better. Everyone deserves a fair chance.
Of course not everyone should make the same salaries. However, a widening wealth gap goes beyond salaries. Schools in poor neighborhoods do not have the same advantages as those in richer communities. Part of this is funding. A study in Los Angeles showed that poorer communities in the area had fewer parks and after school activities. This had a direct correlation to increased crime. Where I lived, there were TONS of parks, LOTS of after school activities and very little crime. A widening wealth gap would degrade the standard of living in these communities.
We've seen that as the wealth gap widens, wages for the lower middle and working poor stagnate (as services and goods increase). Wages for the extremely poor have declined. However, wages for the extremely wealthy have climbed overall.
I'm not a liberal, but I think we need to be concerned about the decline of the middle class in this country. I'm pretty comfortable, but my business, and countless other businesses around this country, depend on people actually being able to earn a decent income so they can participate in the economy. I don't think anyone here is talking about the difference between the salaries of a brain surgeon and a garbage truck driver, but we have a problem when we can't seem to create or keep jobs here for high school and undergraduate level workers that pay a living wage.
Because we outsourced so much producing to other countries who can do it for less.
In this new global economy I think there will be more losers than winners.
Maybe someone needs to realize the concept of supply vs. demand and how it applies to the workforce.
If there are only so many low skilled labor jobs (janitors, construction, garbage truck driver, etc) maybe it would be a good idea to limit immigration of low skilled workers?
Seems like flooding the market with bodies would only make it harder on the poor already here.
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