Let's talk about income inequality

[*michaelsean*]

(05-22-2015, 09:27 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: When I think of income inequality I don't think about those without a job, that's a different fight. I don't even think of minimum wage issues because I don't like a federal minimum wage and so do not like to see one being set.

As for the overall topic of income inequality. The topic is more about the widening wage gap and the elimination of the middle class. The CEO v. worker pay has already been brought up, which is a huge talking point in the conversation. But the thing to me is how many people we see out there doing what they were supposed to and still struggling? The reason why we talk about the issue of student debt is because when we started having these student loans they would get out of college and find a decent enough job to support a family, pay down their loans, live in suburbia, etc. Now they get out of college and they are lucky to find a job that pays them enough for living expenses and to pay down their loans.

There are a large number of reasons for all of this. Partly to blame is the rising cost of college increasing the amount of loans being taken out. The aging workforce also has a lot to do with it. Fewer people are retiring at the age when most people used to. This has to do with a need for money but also because with so many being employed in an industry where physical exertion  isn't a requirement they can work longer than someone in a physically demanding job.

There are just a lot of things at play here currently making things very difficult for people trying to make their way in the world. Has nothing to do with laziness, has nothing to do with the minimum wage, but it is creating a society of the wealthy, the poor, and the working poor with no middle class upon which this country has relied for decades.

But with a lot of these giant corporations, where the CEO is making mega-bucks, if you took all his money and gave it to the employees it doesn't amount to much. I looked at Wal Mart, and it came to like $60 a year per employee if the CEO took no money.