The Vicious Cycle of Inequality

America is the richest society in the world, and yet it is also the most unequal. In recent years, the effects of economic inequality have become increasingly apparent. In addition to the stagnation of wages and a growing number of unemployed or underemployed people, this inequality causes countless social problems that do not exist in egalitarian societies. As the wealth of our country has become increasingly concentrated at the top, the average American has suffered in terms of everything from the quality of their relationships to their physical and mental health. There is a clear correlation between the inequality in different countries and almost every measurable social problem.

Perhaps the worst effect of economic inequality is that it leads to a sense of self that is increasingly materialistic. When position in a society is primarily determined by wealth, your value as a person becomes equivalent to your ability to make money. Successful people rationalize their wealth as something that they have earned and deserve to have. The majority of people, who fail to escape the cycle of not being rich, rationalize their relative poverty as a personal failure. The consumer culture tells them that they are not living life to its full potential, and the capitalist culture tells them that they're not working hard enough. Eventually, these cultural myths become self-fulfilling prophecies as people buy into this story of their lives and resign themselves to the poor economic conditions in which they live.

A materialistic sense of self, in turn, contributes to an increasingly unequal society, causing a vicious cycle to begin. As the gap between the rich and the poor widens, the rich gain more political influence while the poor become increasingly apathetic towards politics. The middle-class, or what is left of it, loses more and more of its political influence as the rich few at the top gain enough money to spend on things like campaign ads and lobbyists. Convinced that they should always do whatever will get them the most money, the corporate executives push for legislation that they know will be very profitable for their corporations. Armies of corrupt politicians are funded by the companies to promote business-friendly laws, and people go along with it based on the idea that what is good for American business is good for all Americans. But this becomes increasingly untrue as the biased legislation makes the income gap even wider and the vicious cycle gets out of control.

The first step to solving our inequality problem is a change of our culture's attitudes about wealth and status. If we recognize that all Americans, whether they are janitors, bus drivers, factory workers, or CEO's, perform necessary roles in our society, we will realize the absurdity of paying one person hundreds or thousands of times more money than another. If more people would look for a purpose in life greater than the pursuit of wealth, we would be able to make the decisions necessary to create a more just and equitable society.