Income Gap Term Paper

self-Perpetuating causes of the poverty gap in the U.S.

This paper considers the existence and the causes of the poverty gap in the U.S. And puts forward the hypothesis that it is a self-perpetuating problem. Issues considered include education, health and government policy. The bibliography cites 4 sources.

The Income Gap

There is a well-known saying: "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer." This appears to be true in the United States. In the "land of opportunity" the income gap is larger than any other industrialized nation (Stille), and its continued existence is a self-perpetuating, negative cycle.

The evidence for an increasing income gap is clear, whilst the richest 10$% of the U.S. have seen their income increase by 34% since 1989, the equivalent increase for the poorest 10% is only 1.3% (Stille). However, there is not total agreement regarding the manifestation and current trend of this poverty gap. In 1962, Michael Harrington wrote a book; the Other America, in which he told readers African-Americans that were working had an average income of only 58% of their white counterparts, furthermore that more than 50% where not working (cited in Michael). However, this was an improvement on the former years, as this was up by 17 points on the figures from two decades before. The gap was still large, but decreasing in its size (Michael).

With this rate of decrease it was projected that equality would be reached at some point after the year 2000 (Michael). The release of the U.S. census data that become available in 1999 also indicated a fall in the poverty gap; with the gained in total income being highest in the poorest groups (Michael).The period between 1998 and 1999 showed increased for the richest 20% of households showed increases of 3.9% and the poorest 20% by 5.4% (Michael).

However even here it may be recognised that using percentage may be misleading in the real levels of poverty, 5% of a small amount is a lot less than 3% of a great deal. In this census these different percentages meant only a $512 increase for the poor, and a $5,055 for the rich (Michael). In addition to this if we look at the spread of wealth, 49% is owned by the richest 20%, and only 3.6% by the poorest 20% (Michael).

With a current level of poverty at 11.8% this is at the lowest rate ever recorded, the decrease starting after 1995 (Michael). However, when we look more closely at the trends the major decrease in inequality occurred in the 1960's with the time between showing only minor improvements, and it is argued that this will again increase when there is a recession r depression (Michael).

If we consider that the level of poverty set by the government is only $8,350 in the year 2000 for a single person, and $11,250 for a couple, then we may also ague that poverty measures are all subjective. The causes however, appear to remain the same.

The problems is so great that according to Michigan University Professor Ronald Inglehart both the rich and the poor show high levels of dissatisfaction, and that he foresees the only way to equality as coercion that removes control for all individuals lives (cited.....