(Illustration above is from the blog Not Buying Anything.)There is no doubt that the distribution of wealth in the United States has gotten out of whack. The rich have more than ever, while the poor and working classes are struggling -- and the middle class is disappearing. The wealth gap between the richest Americans and the rest of America is now as wide as it was before the Great Depression, and it continues to grow wider all the time.
A new Gallup Poll (conducted between April 4th and 7th of a random nationwide sample of 1,005 adults -- with a margin of error of 4 points) shows that a majority of Americans think the wealth distribution should be fairer -- well, everyone but Republicans (who think things are fine just the way they are). Here are the poll numbers (with the first number being those who want a fairer distribution, while the number in parentheses shows those who like the present wealth gap):
General public...............59% (33%)
Democrats...............83% (14%)
Independents...............60% (32%)
Republicans...............28% (60%)
Liberal...............79% (17%)
Moderate...............65% (29%)
Conservative...............41% (47%)
The problem comes in figuring out how to do that. The idea that most people think of to accomplish this is to tax the rich heavily -- and I believe the rich should be paying more than they currently pay. Too many of them get away with paying a smaller percentage than many in the middle class (remember Romney paid 13% on over $20 million in income). But only about half the population would heavily tax the rich to solve this problem. Here are the numbers of those who think the rich should be heavily taxed (although polls have shown that a much larger percentage believe the rich should pay a bit more than they currently pay):
General public...............52%
Democrats...............75%
Independents...............50%
Republicans...............26%
Liberal...............76%
Moderate...............55%
Conservative...............34%
What many don't realize is that taxing the rich is not the only solution. While it would certainly help, there are other things that could be done to make things fairer in our economy -- such things as strengthening unions (and banning "right-to-work" laws), raising the minimum wage to a decent level (at least $10 an hour) and tying it to the inflation rate, make higher education more affordable for low and middle income families, limit CEO and management salaries to a certain rate above the average company worker's salary, increase programs to help the poor and disadvantaged, and stop the outsourcing of good-paying American jobs. I'm sure there are even more, but just doing those things, in addition to a tax increase for the rich, would go a long way towards a fairer economy.
