Inherently, such vast income inequality inspires a variety of social consequences, including stratification of the different social classes. Through research it has become evident that people of the same income bracket tend to cluster together in the same towns. As a result of this, people grow up in a certain set of conditions and are almost completely unaware of how people of a different socioeconomic status live. This misunderstanding of others may evolve into resentment and distrust and then into genuine hatred. As a result of this, America is now in a state of class warfare. Class warfare today has manifested itself in in the debates between the upper- and lower-classes
over which group should bare the bulk of the federal tax burden. The conservatives argue that taxing corporations and rich people takes money that would otherwise be invested in business growth and thus create jobs, but the liberals have disproven this while pointing to the two trillion dollars on the books of American businesses. Liberals argue that this hoarding of money by corporations is causing a slow economy to become stagnant. They believe this wealth could potentially be extremely helpful in Washington's attempts to stimulate the economy and stress the importance of prying the money from greedy corporate hands through taxes to do so. Despite this logic, it has recently become evident
that the business conservatives are winning this war, as the tax burden has
shifted in their favor. These immense social problems have inspired debate over whether this current political system is providing enough power to the lower class to allow them to pull themselves out of poverty. Some have argued that our current political system resembles an oligarchy more than a democracy, as our government has accused of supporting the big businesses at the expense of the poor.