The Great Divide

The gap between rich and poor! In the United States this gap has manifested to the point it has triggered horrific consequences through-out our society. The gap between our society's rich and poor has risen so disproportionately that the United States is now faced with startling revelations. For the past 35 years we have had a continual steady escalation in teen pregnancies, infant mortality, obesity, mental illness, drug use, incarceration, and homicide. We now lead the rest of the world in almost every one of these categories. All of which are costing the United States billions of tax payer dollars annually. Money the United States does not have, pushing our nation further in debt. The rise of all of these factors in America has destabilized our whole economy rendering the United States almost helpless in providing the services that are mandated by law to the majority of our population. This past debt ceiling bill as only accelerated the widening gap between the rich and poor. The reality today is that the majority of the population are fast becoming the nations poorest.

Another disturbing factor in the continued widening of the income gap is that most business have been and are continuing the practice of hiring more temporary workers while laying off full time workers. All this, so that companies will save billions of dollars, gain an unfair advantage over competitors, and deprive the federal government of billions of dollars in tax revenue. Over 50% of today's workforce are now classified as temporary workers. Not only does this practice save companies money and now most are using temps just to stay afloat. This contributes to the widening income gap that is expanding more every day. It also poses another, greater concern, a domino effect of economic retardation. Incomes derived from temporary workers are far below that of regular full time employees. This only curtails forward economic mobility. Even though this looks good on a companies balance sheets is actually detrimental to business all over the United States and for the whole economy. When employees no longer qualify for workers compensation, unemployment insurance, medical leave, and other benefits that are routinely granted to full and some part time company employer's payrolls is a vital factor in the decline of quality in American produced goods and services. This is because there is a greater turnover rate of temporary employees and there is no longer a real authentic motivation to produce quality in the goods and services by non company workers. When quality in products deteriorate sales plummet and a domino effect in business contraction escalates creating more retardation in economies. The cut-throat ideology of today's business climate also is a vital factor in the inequality of today's workers.

In 1978 the average CEO earned 35 times what their average employee made. Today the gap has risen to now the CEO makes over 300% of what their employee makes. From 1979 to 2010 the highest 10% of wage earners in the United States are now making more than 12 times as much as the poorest 10% now make. Today 90% of the population in the United States are making 30% less than they did 35 years ago. A very sad reality of today's workers.

In other industrializes nations the income gap is more balanced. There societies are better economically equipped to offer the public services that their population requires. The Scandinavian countries continually spend over 10% of their national income on social services for their citizens where the United States only spends less than 2%. This comparison only shows how inefficient our current governmental policies and business ideologies really are.

If the United States ever expects to fully recover from the current economic crisis the gap between rich and poor must close. There must be more balance of incomes between the citizens to where the discrepancy is not blatantly so vast. An important step toward narrowing this gap is the reformation of today's business attitudes of Corporate Executives, Board of Directors and Business owners to one that recognizes the importance of living wage employees and the contributions that they make in producing and producing the quality, durability, and affordability of goods and services that are produced. Only when the income gap in American Society closes will the United States actually be capable of achieving real authentic economic expansion. This will happen when our elected officials in Washington finally realize that past and current policies have created the largest imbalance of our society in the nations history. Only total reform of policies, mandates, and laws that are currently entrenched in business culture will this vast divide begin to close. To keep the status-quo spells disaster for all Americans.