Essay --

Income inequality is when income is unevenly distributed in a country. This inequality has reached staggering heights across the world. Even in what we consider developed countries this disparity is only increasing. The causes for income equality can range anywhere from immigration to the policies and politics of a country. However, some critics of income inequality will argue that it will always be present and is necessary to stimulate growth. Nonetheless, the problem is not only that the gap between the poor and the rich is widening but that income inequality is causing devastating market and government failures. We look in particular to the case of the United States. The US is the world’s leading power and hegemon, who also has the world’s highest GDP and GDP per capita. However, in recent years the gap between the rich and the poor has been growing at a fast pace. This prevalence of income inequality in a free market society like the US indicates that inequality is a direct result of a market or government failure. In a free market it is believed that individuals possess an equal opportunity to be successfully, but because of misallocation of resources in a market economy this is not possible. The resources I am referring to here are those that are needed for a person to escape poverty and earn a higher income. This includes merit and public goods that individuals with higher incomes can afford and indulge themselves in while people with lower incomes or suffering from poverty depend on some endowment from the state, such as healthcare, education, and access to employment opportunities and professional networks. It is important to a society that we take care of these market failures to not only help decrease income inequality... ...vity. Furthermore, the bill has the potentially to further increase the income inequality gap. For example, students who can’t afford the cost of higher education but whose parents make too much money to qualify for federal aid will still be forced to take out private loans to fund their education. â€Å"These loans can total anywhere from $50,000 to $60,000 by the time a student graduates, despite attending a public university† (The Student Loan, 2012). This in turn, will cause students to make choices based on the cost of higher education rather than their own which means less skilled works and individuals funding U.S markets and more income inequality. Finally, even though the bill did lower the cost of higher education it does nothing to get rid of the cost fully and unfortunately not really feasible since it was shot down by the Committee of Education and Workforce.