Why Is the Gap between Rich and Poor Widening over the Past 30 Years?

这篇essay描写了美国贫富差距越来越大，以及造成这种现象的原因，文中表明了，在过去30年，美国的贫富差距越来越大，这一现象背后的原因是多方面的。首先,经济原因应该首当其冲。一方面,美国的经济增长几乎停滞,经济低迷持续,失业率增加。另一方面,富人和穷人的差距是美国经济结构相关的虚拟经济和实体经济之间的发展不平衡已经侵蚀了人们的预期就业机会和收入。因此，如果不能有效地阻止这一趋势,美国社会将被困在一个有害的循环。

  There are many new trends in contemporary American culture we are undergoing, and among them is one that can never be avoided or ignored for it is so pertinent to every body’s life and is exerting a great impact on almost each aspect of the nation. It is the phenomenon of the widening gap between rich and poor in the past 30 years in America. According to the statistics published by OECD in 2011, American Gini Coefficient, a standard measure of income inequality has risen from 0.337 in the middle of the 1980s to 0.378 in the latter of the 2000s, close to the threshold of 0.40 which is universally viewed as danger level. America is therefore in the list of member countries with the highest Gini coefficient. Another concentrated outbreak of this issue is the protest movement called “Occupy Walls Street” that began on September 17, 2011. Demonstrators including the unemployment, college students,  members from trade unions and other social organizations held the slogan that "We are the 99%", indicating the income inequality and unreasonable wealth distribution in the America between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population. All these figures and social conflicts have clearly told us that this intractable problem has to be straight faced.
  The causes behind this phenomenon are multi-faceted. First, economic reasons should bear the brunt. On one hand, the economic growth in America is nearly in stasis, downturn persists and the unemployment rate increases. From the figures released by The Commerce Department of the United States, the economic growth rate in the first half year of 2011 is 0.9%. This condition can hardly satisfy the income and consuming need of ordinary Americans and shatter public confidence in the nation’s economy. On the other hand, the rich—and–poor gap is relevant to American economic structure whose unbalanced development between virtual economy and real economy has eroded people’s expectations for employment opportunities and income. The overdevelopment of the virtual economy has brought impetus as well as potential crisis for American economy. One obvious result of this overdevelopment of the virtual economy is the great amount of transfer of domestic manufacturing, which had led to many workers losing their jobs, because the industries of virtual economy, with high technology as the representative, has a relatively high standard for employees so that most of the low-level labors cannot be absorbed in it. As far as I am concerned, the increasing American outcry of protesting or refusing products made in China is actually a helpless response to this harsh condition. It is the sustaining high unemployment rate that has ignited Occupy Wall Street movement and can be considered one of the most important reasons of the widening gap. Second, the present taxation and distribution systems also deeply influence people’s income. In accordance with the current taxation approach, the ordinary middle class need to pay a tax rate of 15% to 25% and the wealthier middle class no more than 35%. Because the prescriptive tax rate of investment income should be equal to or lower than 15% and many super rich men usually carry out many an investment, the actual taxation they pay thus is less than that of an ordinary middle class. In recent years, the weaker financial regulation as an outcome of the government’s partiality for liberalism objectively conduces to exceedingly high income of billionaires in Wall Street. The widening gap is an inevitable and irresistible aftermath of these policies. Third, it should be noticed that the globalization and technology advancement also serve as a driving force behind this issue. As is analyzed before, the benefits brought about by globalization to various groups of people are quite different. The higher the technology content of an occupation involves, the more value it will produce. Thus, for a number of people who conduct labor-intense kind of work will definitely fall behind engineers or experts in income. Unfortunately, this troublesome situation cannot be changed overnight and furthermore, it may generate a vicious circle that richer people with more access to good education will probably outshine those with little investment on intelligence. And this kind of gap in income and some other aspects may remain even widen. 
  The ensuing impacts of the greater gap between rich and poor can be predicted. First, it will intensify the social instability and arouse more conflicts between people from different group. If this problem cannot be properly dealt with, such large-scale protests as Occupy Wall Street will appear frequently. Protests originated from public dissatisfaction will in turn impede the smooth operation and further development of overall economy and people’s passion and initiative for work will be damaged. Second, it will leave negative influence on American democracy regime. It can be foreseen that he greater gap between rich and poor will give rise to people’s questioning and unbelief in government, in the nation’s institutions and political direction if they can see no hope or promising future under one political system. It is possible that they turn to an alternative if provided. Third, this gap will produce inequality in not only income but also education, housing, health insurance and almost every respect with regard to individual life and development as well as cause social conflicts and disputes to be overt, and then political instability and social chaos will follow. As people’s sense of poverty and crisis is provoked, they may express their appeals in some violent way. 
  In general, causes behind the increasingly greater gap between rich and poor in America involve the higher unemployment rate in the wake of the stagnant economic growth, the lopsided industry structure or the unbalanced development between the real economy and the virtual economy, the related policies the government implement,   and the industrial specialization as a result of globalization and technological improvement. Correspondingly, if this trend cannot be effectively stopped, the American society will be trapped into a harmful circle that the 1% richest men with most of the nation’s resources and wealth will keep gaining profits while the rest of the poorer people can do nothing except for being irritated and jealous. At that time, the society is about on the edge of collapse. 
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