Zach Bingham

11/01/15 P.4-5

The Rich, the Poor, and the American Dream

Even as a child I knew that to be happy you dont need to be rich, but you do have to be
financially stable. That's the American Dream; to not have to worry about money. Growing up I
realize that for the rich it is easy to make money and when you're poor you have no money left
over to make investments and make more money, so it all depends on what you start with. The
American Dream is unrealistic to those who arent inherently rich. The poor are given the same
short term loans but are charged ridiculously high amounts that in the end leave them more in
debt, how could the lower class expect to keep their heads above water when they can only get
money by spending even more to get that money? This problem can be fixed in a multitude of
different ways yet this country hasnt taken the steps toward this. The worst part is that the most
Americans dont know what is happening in this countries economy and how bad the wage gap
is and the top 1% is taking advantage of this.
It's common knowledge that the CEO of a company makes a lot more than their average
working employe, but what they don't know is how much more they make and they take
advantage of this.. The CEOs are using this lack of knowledge to their advantage and paying
themselves a ridiculous amount of money. The median American estimated that the CEO-toworker pay-ratio was 30-to-1, and that ideally, itd be 7-to-1. The reality? 354-to-1. Fifty years
ago, it was 20-to-11. This is what americans believe is going on and how the reality is extremely

different, an unimaginable amount, 354-1 means they make 354 times what their workers make,

if a worker had a salary of 50,000 then the ceo would make 17,700,000.

The top 1% have the means, power, and money to change the current problems, but their
avarice keeps them from doing so. In this time the top 500 richest control 40% of this countrys
wealth . A single top income could buy housing for every homeless person in the U.S. 2 . The top
1% and CEOs are bringing in insane amount of money that they wont spend on anyone but
themselves, not every thier own companies, and because of this the economy is failing and
nothing is being done to change that. Just one person could single handedly change the
economy or at least set it off to a better track but because they have all the power they are
required to do so and so they dont.
Its not enough that unprivileged people cant get paid fairly but they also get taken
advantage of by the tax system, even though the poor make less money they are still paying a
bigger portion of their income and this isnt just or fair. Overall, the poorest 20 percent of
Americans paid an average of 10.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes and the
middle 20 percent of Americans paid 9.4 percent. The top 1 percent, meanwhile, pay only 5.4

percent of their income to state and local taxes3. Whether or not the lower and middle class
knows it they are paying more of their money and they make less buy up to 354 times less than
the 1% who pay a very small share of their money.
Although the rich are being taxed less they deserve the break because they earned their
money and worked hard for it, whereas poor people are just lazy, This is a common argument
to justify the tax difference but this is no excuse, and frankly this just isn't true. An average CEO
make what his employees make in a month in an hour. To add on to my point not every rich
individual worked for their money, some inherited all the money and were given all their
privileges at birth.
In Conclusion, the American Dream is only realistic for those who are inherently rich,
those who receive all their wealth from a relative. The unfair and unequal tax system, income
inequality, and the failure of the rich to act have prevented those born into poverty from rising
to the american dream.

Citations
1. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/economic-inequality-it-s-far-worse-thanyou-think/
2. http://inequalityforall.com/
3. http://www.cnbc.com/2015/01/15/do-the-wealthy-pay-lower-taxes-than-themiddle-class.html