The two just cannot agree on whether they should tax the wealthy more, or give them more money. Herbert thinks that if you raise taxes state and federal governments will give out more money to people in need, with the extra taxed money from the wealthy; King says that if you raise taxes and minimum wage, then there will be job cuts so that they can save the money they are spending on raising minimum wage, causing many of American’s to lose their job. Certainly because American’s are not smart enough to raise taxes, we would not be able to understand how to handle raising
Since the days of industry moguls like Carnegie, Morgan, and Rockefeller, money and the achievement of the American Dream have appealed to the American people as indicators of success. The glint of gold, unfortunately, often blinds the greedy from the ill effects of good fortune. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby and his peers are affected by their wealth or lack of it in varying ways, but Fitzgerald emphasizes the negative effect money has on his characters. Money and the pursuit of it are corrupting factors in capitalistic American society, as the wealthy can afford to be apathetic and careless. The wealthy are made shallow by their fortune and flit about with no real purpose, and are comforted knowing that they have the means to entertain themselves.
The rich are penalized for their contribution to the economy through high tax. Our benefit system has spawned a class of intelligent people who exploit the system! In my view this general state has risen from economic and educational divides. I find that the way that different classes of people react to each other, and how they have different mind-sets a bit weird. I mean “who really cares if you dad is worth £1.5 billion or you live in downtown London?” Unfortunately there are people who will judge you based just on your money which saddens me as many of the happiest and nicest people I know are not vastly rich but balanced all rounded individuals.
Based upon social class and political power in public policy, the United States has proven to be a nation where the economy, society, and political system do not function in the same way for all of its citizens, and everybody works for the benefit of the few, and against the interest of the many. Professors Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson argued in their book, “Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer – and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class” (2010), that changing tax rates has been a major factor underlying growing inequality. They claim that the globalization and technological changes are not the causes of economic struggles of the middle and working classes in the United States. Instead they blame a long series of policy changes in government that significantly favored the very rich since the late 1970s. Those changes were the result of, well-financed and well-organized efforts by the corporate sector to push government policies to lean in favor of the very wealthy.
“Something is profoundly wrong with the way we live today” is the powerful opening line of Tony Judt’s book “Ill Fares the Land”, foreshadowing the writer’s critical attitude. His elaborate description of the current political and social situation does not present Western society benevolently. Selfishness and materialism have become the prevailing socio-economic attitudes and our former sense of political and moral value has given way to preoccupation with the monetary value of objects and actions. While a small number of people in society has accumulated a ridiculous amount of wealth, poverty is increasing among the general public, leading to great inequality and loss of social mobility. Social and economic standards have dropped below the poverty line for a large percentage of the population, causing Judt to refer to the prevailing social problems as the re-opening of the social question.
Meaning that the number of people working is undetected. The downside to this is the macro economic policies are likely to be too expansionary and social policy too excessive. The second issue is these underground economy wages are escaping taxation which causes a loss in tax revenue. Lastly it shows that the citizens and the government have an unhealthy relationship. The taxpayers are not happy with the public services from the government and seek help with out having to pay taxes.
This gap has led to the decreasing of education’s quality, and the inequality in residents’ income. Income inequality has put the United States in bad shape. Because of this unfairness, the rich are getting richer whereas the rest are struggling to survive. According to Robert Frank, a New York Times writer, excessive spending by the wealthy has “made it even more expensive for middle-class families to achieve basic financial goals” (Frank; 582). The squeezed society’s neglecting of investment has put both the rich and the poor in a society with low quality infrastructure.
When the federal government is saying there is less inflation than there is, but it’s noticeable in the price of goods, people begin to lose trust in the economy. They don’t truly understand how it affects people on a personal level. We have nothing left to back up the current currency being printed due to Nixon’s termination of the gold standard leaving the world’s economy to fend for itself. The government degrades the side affects of the economy that has produced higher inflation costs, creating more money than what is being backed up, and cronyism. They are not solving the problem; they are just pushing it further into the future and making it worse.
As the imperishable property of money and the selfishness of people, some people try to accumulate the wealth while some people cannot get enough. This creates economic inequality, which leads people to become irrational and think they are more valuable than the others, which violates the law of nature. Therefore, a medium institution or power is desired for preventing the problems of economic inequality and helping to allocate and distribute the resources evenly to the people. This is one of the aims of the government. Second, punishment is difficult.
Many may argue that the falling economy and the wealthy not wanting to share their shares is to blame for the raising rates of poverty here in the states. Poverty of course, has a lot to do with money and income but underneath that it is has a deeper story. Stories of how different people are suffering from it and how they are managing to live day by day. It almost seems as if it’s a foreign nation of its own and you only understand the concepts if you are in it. There is no doubt that here in America we are dealing with one of the greatest economic downfalls.