Income inequality in the United States is continuing to widen since 1970 after the long period of the stability; thus, the higher income households have received higher wages. The data from diverse sources show the big picture of firm growth in the post-war period and the slower but growing inequality beginning from 1970. Within the broad trends, diverse data tell various parts of the stories concerning the variation. The working class tends to give handouts to the poor class making them be reluctant and hence avoid working hard (Herault, n.d). Hence, the level of the income inequality tends to rise at the time elapses. On the other hand, the government policies tend to increase the gap between the poor and the rich through an enactment of the policies that favor the rich people only. The tax system here plays the role in affecting the poor not to perform and achieve significant successes.
The government policies do have much impact on the taxes of the individuals. Therefore, the individuals who earn less money tend to pay more as compared to the rich individuals. Notably, the level of income concentration in the United States fluctuates and in the end, it creates the income inequality slowly as the time elapses (Herault, n.d). Nowadays, the variation comes from the undistributed income or the undistributed employments around the country. From the statistics of the author, during the period and after the taxation, it was recorded that income grew by 277% compared to the 65% of the following 20 % individuals and the 40% of the other 60 % individuals, 18% of the contribution came from the low-income households. Hence, due to the uneven growth of income, the populations with the highest income doubled during the period, and the pie received by the small and the middle-income households declined drastically (Autor, 2014, p. 847). The author considers schooling and the health care as the cause of the rising inequality. The capital invested in the education is rising, and hence, it significantly contributes to the increase of the income inequality through high charges in the educational fee (Herault, n.d). The less educated workers suffer inequality due to the amalgamation of the multiple factors. For example, the competition from the developing nations, erosion of the wages caused by the reduction in federal marginal rate taxes among other factors. The skill premium is not the reasons for the increasing inequality, but the non-employment activities are considered as the primary cause (Autor, 2014, p. 848). The rising technology in various sectors requires the skilled labor who can manage the technical parts of it, hence the education is highly recommended here, and the individuals with high level of education tend to be employed as compared to the less educated individuals. Therefore, the poor people tend to miss the opportunities due to inadequate training, as they cannot acquire the best education in the country. The uneducated individuals mostly depend on the skilled and employed individuals for survival purposes, or they perform the unskilled labor in the country. Hence, to minimize the dependency, the unskilled labor industry needs to be developed to discourage the laziness. Ideally, it helps in reducing the income inequality growth (Autor, 2014, p. 843). Similarly, the government policy decisions that favor's the rich at the expense of the poor is much more consistent since it denies the poor the opportunity to practice their knowledge unlike the culture of dependency which depends on the choice of the individual on whether to work hard or not.
References
Autor, H. D. (2014). Skills, education, and the rise of earnings inequality among the "other 99 percent". Science. doi:10.1126/science.1251868
Herault, N. (n.d.). How Income Mobility and Income Growth Explain Income Inequality Trends. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2640805
