The US economy is growing in leaps and bounds! So the rich keep saying, or rather, so the poor keep hearing. When it comes to wealth and economic growth, there seems to be two Americas. The first is the rich man’s America that keeps on getting better while the other is the poor man’s America that keeps getting poorer (Amadeo, 2018). Several concrete issues are contributing to income inequality and the perpetuation of poverty in the USA. Unless and until these aspects are addressed and handled, the rich will keep getting richer and the poor will continue to hold the rich get richer.
The greatest hope for breaking the cycle of income inequality and poverty has always been education. ‘Go to school’ they said, “work hard, and we could all get out of this cycle of poverty.’ Children of the working poor and the underclass did as they were told and studied hard. They later had children who also studied very hard, but the cycle of poverty was never broken (Semuels, 2016). Further, the chasm of income inequality was never bridged. Why would education not cure the ill it seems designed specifically to overcome?
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Education failed because the rich always get a better education than the poor. One would be forgiven for thinking that the rich get a better education because they pay for it in private schools. Indeed, to some extent, this is also true. However, even in the public education system, the affluent continue to get a better education than the poor. An evaluation of public schools in affluent areas shows that they are different from schools in poor neighborhoods (Semuels, 2016). They have better resources, better-equipped classes, and a better learning environment. It thus comes as no surprise when the children of the affluent perform better in school than those of the poor. The two sets of children are fighting for the very same higher education opportunities (Semuels, 2016).
Outside the classroom, children from low-income families still face more challenges than children from rich families. The environment that a child lives in is a major determinant on who they will eventually perform in class (Semuels, 2016). A child from a poor family will come to school still worrying about the next meal after school. There might also be some violence, gang activities or drug peddling where the child lives. All these distractions affect the ability to concentrate in class and by extension the child’s performance. The deck keeps off getting stuck against the child from a poor family as far as getting an education is concerned (Semuels, 2016).
The resilient child from a poor family may still work hard and excel in elementary and high school, hence earning an opportunity for higher education. Unfortunately, higher education is extremely expensive in America (Ibrahim, 2018). The child from a poor family will need some help, and the rich are always there to help. ‘Take a student loan’ they say, ‘it is guaranteed by the government so nothing can go wrong.’ The children take massive loans to get them through higher education (Ibrahim, 2018). Others decide that high school education is good enough. They then join their parents in minimum wage jobs.
When the resilient ones finally graduate and start working, they only make enough for subsistence; the rest goes into paying student loans (Ibrahim, 2018). The poor son of a factory technician ends up becoming a very poor physician. The poor daughter of a bus driver ends up becoming a very poor lawyer! The cycle of poverty and income inequality continues from generation to generation.
More often than not, the educated poor and those unable to get a good education end up working either for old money Americans or corporations. Some families made a lot of money long ago through what was called investing wisely. An unkind person may also call it exploiting the masses. These families and individuals have in their families more money than they can spend in generations. They are also the ones entrusted to control the fate of the economy (Amadeo, 2018). One has to wonder how they are supposed to fight poverty when they have never been poor. All they worry about are the numbers. They keep getting richer while the poor who work for them and get poorer.
The money not being controlled by ‘old money’ Americans happens to be in the hands of corporations and large companies. Indeed, the USA has been accused of being a ‘corporatocracy’ as large companies seem to control even the government. Large companies are so powerful that they decide how to pay the poor to work for them (Amadeo, 2018). They also decide how to charge the poor for the goods and services that they provide. The outcome is a low wage accompanied by a high cost of services which ensures that the rich keep on getting richer and the poor continue to get poorer.
‘But where is the government?’ You ask, ‘is it not the obligation of the government to look after the masses.’ The validity of that question is augmented by the fact that the USA is a democracy which engenders the concept of one man one vote. The poor are much more than the rich and thus have the power to bring about change. Unfortunately, powerful corporations have a lot of influence in the government (Amadeo, 2018). During elections, money is an important determinant of who wins and who losses. The rich have large purses to ensure elected officials owe them favors. There is also the concept of lobbying that sees ideas by the rich and affluent control policymaking and government agenda.
A good example of government policy favoring the rich at the expense of the poor is the current tax regimen that saw major tax cuts for the rich. The general idea behind the tax cuts was to increase employment rates in the USA, and technically it seems to have worked (Amadeo, 2018). The rich got richer and were, therefore, able to employ more poor people at minimum wages. This way, the rich were able to keep getting richer while the poor were able to survive. It is ironical that when the government thought about the poor, it gave money to the rich!
We, however, still have the resilient poor who will work hard against all the odds, save up some money and hope to break the cycle of poverty. It would be unfair and untrue to state that they do not always succeed. Some of them, actually do succeed and gain affluence. Many, however, fail due to the factors outlined above. Some also almost succeed then come crushing back to poverty. For example, chronic illness is one of the major causes of bankruptcy in the USA. A poor person will work hard and save meticulously, only to lose it all to a sickness in the family (West, 2019).
Lack of proper welfare is also a major driver of poverty as family members have to care for the less fortunate against them (West, 2019). It is hard to choose between getting rich in assisting a collection of older family members who have fallen into hard times. The cycle of poverty continues unabated as the poor undertake duties that rightfully should have belonged to the government.
The capitalist experiment in the USA has definitively succeeded. After all, Americans top most of the global billionaire lists. However, the majority of Americans are not rich. Many of them are just getting by while a large number are poor despite working very hard to break the cycle of poverty. It is the very system that keeps making the rich richer that also ensures that the poor remain so.
References
Amadeo, K. (2018, November 7). The True Cause of Income Inequality in America. Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/income-inequality-in-america-3306190
Ibrahim, I. (2018, September 28). New study shows how student loan debt worsens economic inequality for Black people. Retrieved from http://blackyouthproject.com/new-study-shows-how-student-loan-debt-worsens-economic-inequality-for-black-people/
Semuels, A. (2016, August 25). Good School, Rich School; Bad School, Poor School. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/08/property-taxes-and-unequal-schools/497333/
West, R. (2019, February 13). Here's How Much America's Rising Income Inequality Is Costing Social Security. Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/poverty/news/2019/02/13/466134/heres-much-americas-rising-income-inequality-costing-social-security/
