The income and wealth gap continues to grow at a faster and faster rate because there is ever more power to affect policy provided to those that have such substantial incomes.

Education and Healthcare

There are other less direct ways in which the income gap is self-perpetuating, as well, establishing a system that purports to be meritocratic -- based on merit, where everyone has an equal chance to succeed based on their own skills and efforts -- but that in reality is stacked in favor of those already endowed with financial success (the Economist, 2006). Access to education is heavily mediated by the ability to pay for this education, and this is true at all levels, from elementary school through to undergraduate and graduate schools; wealthy parents can afford to hire tutors for their children, to pay high fees for prestigious private schools that confer advantages in higher education and...
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