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living rooms. In today’s society it takes a little more to keep up with the neighborhood standards.

So who cares if there are spoiled kids and rich parents in today’s society? Does it matter? The answer is yes. The money has to come from somewhere.

The Poor: The New Majority

By 1998, almost 35 million Americans were living under poverty level (U.S. Bureau of the Census). That is a lot. Statistics get worn out with the public real fast, and sometimes its takes a minute or two of actual thought to realize the enormality of the numbers. Perhaps a bigger problem are the millions of families just above poverty level, struggling to keep their homes, their jobs, and any small possessions they may have earned. As long as the current trend continues, it is likely just a matter of time before they will join the other 35 million just below them. About 95% of the benefits of economic growth over the last 25 years have gone to the richest 5% of the population (Henwood 2).

That leaves 5% for the bulk of the population. By the time those benefits are rationed out, over 100% has gone to the upper half of the population. So who is left to pay the difference? Perhaps the biggest problem with poverty is that is a black hole of sorts. The

less you have, the more you are sucked in. This is a daily threat for millions of hard working families. To add to the problem, many of these families live in towns adjacent to the executive fathers and soccer moms of the children driving cars that could alone get the poor families out of their hole considerably. This can only add to the feeling of desperation that consumes far too many of these families. So what has the government done to help the poor? Not enough, obviously. But when closer examined, some of the efforts the government has made do not seem to add up. Take minimum wage, a primarily lower class issue. In 1938, Congress passed the Wages and Hours Act setting minimum wage at $.25 per hour for workers engaged in interstate commerce. It has since unsteadily increased the minimum wage to reflect inflation. In 1950, the minimum was increased to $.75 an hour, and has since been increased 16 times. During the 1980’s, a period of great economic prosperity, the government waited 9 years to increase minimum wage from $3.35 an hour. Despite all this., the minimum wage has been ever increasing. However, when cross – referenced with the rate of inflation, the minimum wage rate has actually gone steadily downward since the early 1970’s. Is this a product of the government unable to keep up with the economic growth of the 20th century? More likely a government with other things on its mind that its own starving population.

A Global Problem

This lopsided distribution of wealth becomes distorted beyond recognition when put on the global scale. Fig. 1. Distribution of Global Income By Class, 1963. Figure 1 shows in 1963, the poorest 20% of the world’s population accounted for 2.3% of the global income, while the richest 20% accounted for 70% (UNDP 1). This is an alarmingly inproportionate rate, but it is not getting any better. Fig. 2. Distribution of Global Income By Class, 1998. Figure 2 shows that by 1998, the poorest 20% of the world’s population accounted for 1.2% of the global income, while the richest 20% accounted for a whopping 89% (Baker 6). The Lower Class is barely a blip on the radar, while the upper class is clearly in control.

Where Do We Go From Here? It seems the wealth could not be more unevenly distributed, and no traces of economic justice even exist. People living in poverty need some kind of hope, some sign that their government has not forgotten them. The truth is, there are plenty of people who do care, and there are many efforts to help. The discrepancies are simply too big to go unnoticed, and a change is inevitable. As for right now, the trend continues. The rich get super-richer, the poor get poorer.

Works Cited

Zinn, Howard. Declarations of Independence. New York: HaperCollins, 1990.

Raymond W. Baker: A 150-to-1 Ratio Is Far Too Lopsided for Comfort, 1999/02/05, Intl.

Herald Tribune, pg.6.

Mohammed Dore: Poverty, Global Inequality and the Foundations of Redistribution

Policy, 1996

“Forbes 400 Richest in America.” Forbes.com. 2000

U.S. Department of Labor. “U.S. Employment Standards Admin.”.

U.S. Bureau of the Census “Poverty”. 26 September 2000

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