La Desigualdad De La Riqueza En Estados Unidos

Everything related to or affecting the citizens of this country seems relevant to the class. Especially if it involves government plans. As in the case of article at The Atlantic “How to Fix America's Wealth Inequality: Teach Americans to Be Cheap”. By Noah Smith, Published on March 12, 2013.

After reading the article and see the interesting video showing the America’s Wealth Inequality I must mention that it deserves a few minutes of our time.

As we see on the video, only the 1% of Americans has 40% of the total wealth of the nation. Proceeds from this, 1% have almost tripled it in the past 30 years. Meanwhile, 80% which is just below this minority only has a ridiculous 7% of the country's wealth. Inequality is high.

When we talk about economic inequality, we tend to talk about income inequality. But wealth inequality is much more skewed, as these numbers from the Economic Policy Institute show:

Another interesting fact is that relating to investments: while 1% owns half of the shares, bonds and mutual funds in the country, 50% of Americans in the bottom have only 0.5% of these investments, which tells us, as we say in the video, these people do not invest, just survive.

As shown in the following chart:

The data show a brutal crushing and unequal distribution of wealth in this country, which is something we had already imagined but we did not think it would come in a form so extreme. It is obvious that the current economic system only benefits a minority against an overwhelming majority. Certainly, something is not working properly in the world.

In particular the content of this article affects me for been part of the minority, and I think that the Government should really implement financial education classes for all citizens of this country, regardless of social or economic level. I think we all have the right to belong to the 1%, but to do so; we not only have to have the economic resources but also the financial education necessary to multiply those resources.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/03/how-to-fix-americas-wealth-inequality-teach-americans-to-be-cheap/273940/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/06/this-viral-video-is-right-we-need-to-worry-about-wealth-inequality/

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