Dear President,

Income Inequality has been a problem for decades. The Income levels between the wealthy and the poor has been rising at a tremendous rate and it continues to do so. Some evidence that supports this, from the Economist Organization states, “the share of national income going to the richest 1% of Americans has doubled since 1980.” This needs to be looked at deeply by the President otherwise it will become out of control, which means that the people in poverty will continue to be in poverty and struggle to get food on the table. It also means that the percentage of the population that is in the middle class will lower and the total consumer cash flow will lower resulting in the government to obtain less in taxes. Furthermore, the government earning less in taxes results in the government having less money for the military, education, etc.

Furthermore, research in the article “The French Economist” by Thomas Piketty stated, “the top 1 percent of U.S households received more than a 5th of all U.S income in 2013, compared to less than a tenth in the late 1970s and early 80’s”. This raise of the 1 percent of the U.S households incomes has caused the middle class to lower in size. This is a problem that is causing more and more people to shift from middle class to lower class. This, as a result, causes to total consumer spending to lower, finally making unemployment raise. All of this results in the reduction of economic growth and the tax revenue of the U.S government for solving problems like income inequality.

To continue, there are countless causes leading to the issue of income inequality. One of the main causes is the amount of people that earn minimum wage or close to minimum wage. According to the Economic Policy Institute, “15 million Americans are still stuck in the low wage range between $7.25 and $10.” Also according to Kimberly Amadeo, “More than 25 percent of Americans earn 10$ or lower an hour.” “The top-earning Americans will pay nearly half of the federal income taxes for 2014,” according to CNBC.com. This means that the top earning Americans make a tremendous amount more than the bottom 80% of Americans. This is because, the bottom 80 percent only pay 15 percent of the total federal income tax,” according to CNBC.com. All of this has been blamed from cheap labor in China, greedy corporate executives, unfair exchange rates, and illegal immigrants.

In addition, income inequality affects almost all of the U.S population because of the income gap between the rich and the poor. It affects the rich because they are taxed a tremendous amount more than regular Americans. This may seem unfair to them because while the top earning Americans pay 50 percent of the federal income tax, while the bottom 80 percent of Americans only pay 15 percent of the federal income tax. The income gap is affecting the lower class people because they are continuously trying to get food on the table for their families. I think this is because of the opportunities that these people are given. These people were kids once and they could have been very smart individuals and had the potential to get a very good job, but their families didn’t have enough to put them into collage. Then, as a result, these people are stuck with low wage jobs and struggle to provide food for themselves and their families. There are also countless other reasons that these people are in poverty and it all comes down to the opportunities that they are given.

To extend, many people believe that cutting taxes on people like the upper class will boost spending to equalize the government income. Also people argue that cutting taxes will lead to less money for government services for lower income people. This will lead to a greater problem because now these lower income people don’t have money to provide for basic needs such as food because they have to pay for healthcare. These lower class people are already struggling and if the government reduced spending for services like healthcare, then they will be unable to provide for their families.

Additionally, there are solutions to income inequality. Firstly, the government could increase the minimum wage to at least $15 a hour. This is the minimum income for people to not be in poverty. According to James Sherk from the Labor Economics Center for Data Analysis, “The higher income would affect 31.1% of the U.S workforce.” There should also be more government services to help families in poverty. Some examples of more government services are, cheap childcare, help for paying for basic needs like clothes, and more affordable education. These government services allow for children in these families to have a better opportunity to succeed and get a higher paying job eventually reducing the income gap.

To conclude, the income gap between Americans continues to rise exponentially, which means we need to take action. The points that are in this letter are explained need to be considered by the next U.S president to allow the income gap to be lowered. This will be a challenge but as Donald Trump as said, “when somebody challenges you, fight back. Be brutal, be tough.”

Sincerely,

Jordan Sanders