Is America Becoming More Unequal?

            The model outlined by the CEO example is indicative of the overall trend in the United States toward greater inequality and a dangerous social system in which a select few individuals maintain and increase their control.  Necessary property rights not withstanding, it is dangerous to continuously add to the fortunes of a select few and continuously allow the denigration of the quality of life of so many hard working Americans—especially so in a society which purports to be the model functioning, democratic society.

            Ironically, this same sentiment is voiced by one of the wealthiest individuals in the world.  Warren Buffet, one of the country’s most famous investors and formerly one of the top-ten richest men on earth, recently warned Congress not to allow our free democracy to descend into the unequal, imperial control system in which a select few rule the masses.  Correcting the widening income disparity in the United States, Buffett contends, is “needed to prevent our democracy from becoming a dynastic plutocracy” (REED 1).  A society in which freedom and equality are shared by everyone is inevitably threatened when a few select people own everything. 

Our founding fathers left an empire in the hopes of starting an equal, free and fair society in which every citizen is recognized and liberty denied to none.  Yet, with great wealth and power comes greater access to the workings of government and greater voice within the decision making structure.  Not only are the working and middle classes denied the access to the legislative process which comes with great wealth, they are also stuck in a workplace and economic structure that grows dimmer by the decade.  Workers toil longer for the same wage, commute farther for the same jobs, work without the healthcare they cannot afford, and watch the incentive packages of the CEOs they serve grow five hundred times what they make in a working year.  A redistribution of the wealth in this country may not be the most effective measure to reverse the inequality which continues to characterize the United States of America.  But if the trend continues (in which the wealthy watch their fortunes grow amid the continuing decline of quality-of-life for working Americans), we will have devolved into the same disparity, dynasty, and inequality which the founding fathers revolted against.         

 Michelle Sanders