The Increasing Wealth Gap in the United States

During COVID, billionaires added $931 billion dollars to their wealth. However, for the poorer who barely made enough to make ends meet; most of them were laid off with little in the name of savings. This is the capitalistic society we live in; where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The phenomenon has been talked about many times before as more and more scientists predict that the middle class in America will continue its decline. Soon, there will be no in-between. And again, the people affected will be the minorities; who have been suppressed by society for years. Can we, as a society, really let this happen again? Seemingly, if trends continue, it looks like time will stop but systematic oppression can never be tackled.

Systematic racism are “policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization, and that result in and support a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race” according to Cambridge Dictionary. Meaning, that due to prejudices in our society people are being oppressed due to factors they can’t control: such as their skin color, their religion, or the family they are born in. For example, one white woman who had a name that most African Americans have was rejected from all of her jobs when she applied online. However, once she decided to do in-person interviews, she got offers from all of them. Can we really let future generations grow up in such an environment? An environment which begrudgingly lets someone who doesn’t meet the stereotypical American characteristics get equal chances. Many people don’t even realize the way they are racist. Just moving away from someone because you think that the ethic group they belong to are violent is subtle racism as well. People often make the same comparison with African Americans. But the truth is, it has less to do with skin color and more the socio-economic status of the society. Movies have also contributed to this idea; by always depicting African Americans as cursing and speaking broken english. The same way Asians are portrayed as nerdy. We will see how this leads to the widening wealth gap, how that plays out in the real world and finally, how to solve it.

Since 1979, the top 1% saw their wages grow by 157.8% and the top 0.1% by more than twice as much⁠—340.7%. Wages for the bottom 90% only grew 23.9% in the same time period. According to the Pew Research center, “The wealth gap between upper-income and lower- and middle-income families has grown wider this century. Upper-income families were the only income tier able to build on their wealth from 2001 to 2016, adding 33% at the median. On the other hand, middle-income families saw their median net worth shrink by 20% and lower-income families experienced a loss of 45%. As of 2016, upper-income families had 7.4 times as much wealth as middle-income families and 75 times as much wealth as lower-income families.” What this shows us is that soon there will be an insurmountable wealth gap that will make it even harder for people to jump social classes. However, what makes this divide worse is that even among people with similar qualifications, minorities still don’t get paid as much. For example, in 2017, black men were paid only 69.7 cents on the white male dollar. Meanwhile, in 2000, black women were paid 60.8 cents on the white male dollar, and by 2017, that number remained entirely unchanged. This means that there has been no progress on closing racial pay gaps since 2000. We must go back to see when this all began. Since slavery, African Americans and other people with darker skin tones are likely to earn less than their white counterparts. This means that white people are much more likely to get inheritances, or generational wealth. This leads to many unfair advantages; such as being more likely to get a job, being paid more and overall treatment. Over time, all of this money builds up and makes it even harder for those at the bottom of the ladder to jump socio-economic classes.

However, this also perpetuates racial stereotypes in day-to-day life. Because minorities will then live in areas where the income rate is lower, they will have less access to many different resources and will always be thought of as dangerous due to high crime rates in those parts of the city. This is important because if we, as a society, don’t do something, people in poorer neighborhoods will then never be able to get out of poverty. Racist stereotypes will keep being perpetuated and people will keep judging others for things that they can’t control. It is no fault of the person if their parents may not be economically stable. So how do we solve this? Or can we solve this?

We need to start off by not judging someone by their appearance. We need to make sure that we get to know them before making assumptions on their character. For many people, this involves letting go of prejudices that have been ingrained in them from an early age. It won’t be easy; but it also isn’t impossible. People in poorer communities should also get more resources and opportunities, which can also be achieved if we understand their struggles and actually try to help them. For one person, a child could always be late to school and may not do their homework. Not worthy of an opportunity right? But another perspective could show us them getting up early to prepare their siblings for school and working jobs after school to make ends meet for their family. But to go in depth we need to open ourselves to the possibilities.

It takes hard work, it takes a blank mind, it takes a society willing to make change: but most importantly it takes an open mindset to make the change that we want to see in the world.

Work Cited:

“Black-White Wage Gaps Are Worse Today than in 2000.” Economic Policy Institute, 2016, www.epi.org/blog/black-white-wage-gaps-are-worse-today-than-in-2000/.

Horowitz, Juliana Menasce, et al. “Trends in U.S. Income and Wealth Inequality.” Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project, Pew Research Center, 17 Aug. 2020, www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-in-income-and-wealth-inequality/.

Kagan, Julia. “How Much Income Puts You in the Top 1%, 5%, 10%?” Investopedia, Investopedia, 28 Aug. 2020, www.investopedia.com/personal-finance/how-much-income-puts-you-top-1-5-10/.

Yancey-Bragg, N'dea. “What Is Systemic Racism? Here's What It Means and How You Can Help Dismantle It.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 29 Jan. 2021, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/15/systemic-racism-what-does-mean/5343549002/.