Inequity

I’ve written in this blog before about the unfair distribution of income in the U.S. The disparity between the very rich and the rest of us has continued to grow over the decades. By 2021, the top 10 percent of Americans held nearly 70 percent of U.S. wealth. The bottom 50 percent (roughly sixty-three million families) owned about 2.5 percent of wealth. The richest 0.1 percent take in 196 times as much as bottom 90 percent. As a result, income inequality in the U.S. is the highest of all the G7 nations, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Why don’t legislators in the greatest democracy in the world pass laws to move toward more equitable income distribution? Robert Reich’s column yesterday pointed out that because legislators from both the Democratic and the Republican parties depend on contributions from the wealthy to carry out their political campaigns and get voted into office, law makers from both parties have largely supported legislation that favors the wealthy. Put differently, the well-to-do are able to buy laws that support them.

It’s long past time that President Biden and the Democrats in Congress took steps to favor the poor and middle-class majority over the rich minority. That means all of us in the majority have to pressure our representative to level the balance.

If you haven’t already written to the people elected to serve you, now’s the time.