Dear Future President,

     First, I would like to congratulate you on winning the election as the next President of the United States! With this new position, you will receive many new responsibilities. I’m sure you have many important topics to discuss, but I think the income inequality issue needs to be solved.

     The distribution of wealth around the world is a major worry for our future. According to a report published by the British-based anti-poverty charity Oxfam, the world’s 85 wealthiest people control the same amount of money as half of the world’s population. This is a huge problem for the large population of the poor. Oxfam’s website says, “The wealth of the 1 percent richest people in the world amounts to $110 trillion. That’s 65 times the total wealth of the bottom half.” This means that 85 people use the same amount of resources as half of the world. Therefore, people are dying around the world due to lack of food and water, while 85 people have more than they could ever need.

     President Obama has recognized that this is an issue, but he has done little to fix it. He stated, “A child born into the bottom 20 percent of income levels has less than a 5 percent chance of making it to the top income levels.” This means that the same people will always be in control of the wealth. Parents aren’t able to provide the resources for their children to get a good education so they can get a well paid job. Therefore, they stay in poverty and the cycle continues throughout generations.

     Raising the minimum wage could stop this cycle. Many uneducated people have access to minimum paying jobs, if the wage were to increase, they could rise out of poverty quicker. The Labor Department found that if the minimum went up to $15 tomorrow, nearly 22 million workers would get at least a 50 percent bump in pay. Once minimum wage increases, the demand for products and services would also rise. Businesses could see their sales thrive and benefit from the higher demand for their products.

     All in all, the income gap needs to shrink to allow lower income families to have the opportunities that the wealthiest Americans receive. We need to distribute the wealth to the lower half of society to allow future generations to stay out of poverty. I would appreciate if you would take this solution into consideration and reduce the inequality of income.

Sincerely,

Madison