Summary 9

Paul Krugman, in his article Confronting Inequality, explains how and why large differences between wages of the wealthy and the poor are a problem. Today, America's middle class is overextending themselves in an effort to give their children more opportunities Many middle class citizens are purchasing homes that they can't afford, so that their kids will be attending a good school so that their children can have more opportunities This shows the growing gap between the wealthy and the poor. Robert Frank reports that the rich are creating their own world, away from the middle class and the poor, which supports Krugman's thesis that there is a growing difference in social equality, which is being caused by the gap between wealth.
Another reason that inequality between the classes is important is because of politics. If politicians are able to buy and own the government, they will. Today, that is exactly what is happening. Politicians have enough wealth and influence that they are unaffected by the average joe who doesn't agree with them. One example of this can be seen in the tax break for the hedge fund managers. Many individuals disagreed with the tax break, yet politicians avoided taking action against it. Also, the more money the wealthy have, and the less of a middle class there is, the more influence the wealthy have in politics, which again increases the social inequality in America.
Some suggestions to solve this growing concern is to let these tax cuts expire as they are scheduled to in the near future. The next step is to close the loopholes that allowed the tax breaks in the first place. Once these suggestions are implemented, there will be more revenue for the government, so that lower income families can be assisted, and then social equality will resume.