Income Inequality in the US - Essay Example

Income inequality has been soaring in the United States since 1967. For the top 1% income has soared by 200%, but for the average people, income has only risen by 30%. A way to reduce the battle against the income disparities in the population is by increasing the level of educational attainment.

The income gap that exists between a person that has a high school degree and a college graduate with a bachelor's degree is approximately $23,000 a year. Over a lifetime a person with a college degree will earn 75% more than a higher graduate while a person with a graduate degree with earn four times more. Income data can be presented graphically using a Lorenz curve. A Lorenz curve is a curve that shows cumulative shares of income received by individuals or groups. It was developed in 1905 by Marx Lorenz. The distribution of US income shows that the Lorenz became more bowed out between 1968 and 2006. The Gini coefficient measures the ratio between the Lorenz curve and the 45-degree line and the total area under the 45-degree line. The Gini coefficient in the United States in 2006 was 0.46.

A form of inequality that has risen since the 1960s is an increase in the number of families headed by women. Technological changes have influenced the demand for labor. The demand for skilled labor has risen while the demand for unskilled labor has declined. The result has been an increase in the income gap between skilled and unskilled workers. Along with new technologies, firms are adopting new management styles that required stronger communication skills. The intellectual gap will continue to widen as we move further into the 21st century. Future generations are going to become more educated than ours in order to survive.

In our current workforce, some of the changes include the use of production teams and small assembly line work units. Due to the fact that people are being forced to work together interpersonal and communication skills have become critical skills employees have to master. College graduates entering the workforce must possess these skills to succeed. The tax cuts generated during the Bush-era were criticized as being tilted unfairly towards the rich. The share of the tax relief received by the first four quintiles was modest, while those in the top quintile received more than two-thirds of the total benefits of the three tax cuts. The shares of the taxes paid by each of the first four quintiles fell as a result of the tax cut, while the share of the top quintile rose. Read More