The Roots of the Income Gap

There are many theories to how the income gap originated in America. Some argue that it may have stemmed from a discrepancy in education and scholastic achievement between the rich and the poor. Despite great efforts by the founding members of our nation to make education 'the great equalizer' to ensure all children have a chance of success, education is ultimately ineffective in doing so. In fact, it is arguably the source of this widening income gap. Although it is true that education has vastly improved the success of the poor, it has improved the success of the rich at a faster rate. With the rich consistently being more educated than the poor, they continually receive more desirable career opportunities with higher salaries.

Others argue that economic recessions, most notably the one America experienced in 2008, contribute to income disparity. This is because, in economics, there must be a compromise between perfect equality and perfect inequality because the rich are relied upon to invest their disposable income into the economy, and the poor must have enough money to consume goods to drive the economy. With the balance of this scale being disturbed as our nation gradually leans further toward perfect inequality as opposed to perfect equality, the economy crashed and catalyzed one of the worst economic recessions the nation had ever experienced. After careful research it has become evident, that most, if not all, of the recessions that our nation has experienced have been caused by income inequality.