Part of our responsibility as Christians is to work for justice in our society, especially to help the poor. Over the past few years the gap between the rich and the poor in America has been widening. Here are some statistics from Business Insider:
” The average American millennial household today (ages 20 to 35 in 2016) has an average net worth of $100,800, while the average American baby boomer household today (ages 52 to 70 in 2016) has a net worth of $1.2 million, reported Mallika Mitra for CNBC, citing a MagnifyMoney analysis of Federal Reserve data on household assets and liabilities (all values are adjusted for inflation). That means that baby boomer households in 2016 had twelve times the net worth of millennial households.
” In 1998, the average household aged 20 to 35 had a net worth of $103,400, while households aged 52 to 70 had a net worth of $747,600, MagnifyMoney found — roughly seven times more than the younger households. ” That means the wealth gap between older households and younger households has nearly doubled in the past 20 years, climbing from seven to twelve times the net worth. In that time frame, the average net worth for households ages 20 to 35 has declined by $2,600, while households ages 52 to 70 have seen a $452,400 increase in net worth.
Here are some statistics cited by Yahoo Finance:
“According to the Economic Policy Institute, the top 1% of wage earners saw their incomes increase by more than 153% between 1979 and 2012. In the same period, the bottom 99% only saw wage growth of just over 17%.
“The 2018 World Inequality Report by World Inequality Lab shows that while wealth inequality is not unique to the United States, it is much worse compared to other Western nations. While inequality has grown globally, it has increased “rapidly” in the United States, and only “modestly” in Europe, the report says. While the top [one-percenters’] income share was close to 10% in both regions in 1980,” the report says, “it rose only slightly to 12% in 2016 in Western Europe, while it shot up to 20% in the United States. Meanwhile, in the United States, the bottom [50-percenters’] income share decreased from more than 20% in 1980 to 13% in 2016.”
Here are some statistics from the Wall Street Journal:
“The decade-long economic expansion has showered the U.S. with staggering new wealth driven by a booming stock market and rising house prices. But that windfall has passed by many Americans. The bottom half of all U.S. households, as measured by wealth, have only recently regained the wealth lost in the 2007-2009 recession and still have 32% less wealth, adjusted for inflation, than in 2003, according to recent Federal Reserve figures. The top 1% of households have more than twice as much as they did in 2003.”
Notice that my citations are from business publications, not from the far-left. This is an ominous trend and would eventually lead to the long-term impoverishment of millions. This problem has been growing under Republican and Democratic administrations; there do not seem to be any powerful forces opposing these trends. In general, it appears that the a large proportion of middle and lower class families cannot afford a decent house, proper insurance coverage, good health care, dependable transportation, college education (without huge debt), reasonable recreation and solid retirement plan growth.
A very recent report from the United States Census Bureau finds that income inequality in the United States is getting worse.
President Trump said he wanted to make America great again, but the gap is still widening. His tax cuts have benefitted big businesses but the benefits are not trickling down to the lower-income households as much as they should. Instead, the cuts are producing an increasingly massive national debt that we will have to pay for someday. Based on history, paying off debt will cause more suffering for the lower economic classes than for the rich.
What are some of the solutions to the income and wealth gaps?
- Higher income taxes. The upper 10% of income-earners can afford to pay more taxes; they are historically low.
- Higher estate taxes. The exemption is far too high; couple can give over $20 million to heirs tax-free. “The estate and gift tax exemption is $11.4 million per individual, up from $11.18 million in 2018. That means an individual can leave $11.4 million to heirs and pay no federal estate or gift tax, while a married couple will be able to shield $22.8 million. ” From Forbes
- Eliminate tax benefits for owning more than 3 residential homes. Many investors, including large real estate businesses push home prices up by buying up homes for investment. Eliminating tax benefits will keep prices lower, thus allowing lower-income households to buy homes.
- Change other policies to make housing more affordable.
- Change the laws to allow workers to have more bargaining power. Why aren’t incomes for lower paying jobs rising faster considering how tight the job market is? Workers need to be able to pressure companies to pay more.
- Vote for politicians who are committed to reducing the income and wealth gaps.
- Find more creative solutions and promote them.
- Express concern to your friends and social networks.
It is helpful to remember that as our nation becomes less Christian dishonesty, greed and narcissism will grow. This means more and more businesses and more of the wealthy will try to take advantage of others and to pressure politicians to favor the wealthy. Christians need to resist these trends and be a loud voice in the public square pushing for more income and wealth equality.
