Income inequality has drastically risen in America. The younger the demographic the smaller the share of wealth compared to thier elders at the same age. We know there are a lot of factors contributing to it.
Wages have fallen relative to increases in inflation and productivity. We can look at the crippling of unions and the Taft-Hartly act for that.
The cost of housing has increased as landlords horde shelter and drive up the prices forcing more Americans into rentals and on the streets.
The amount we pay for healthcare has ballooned well past what it costs to provide it as we line the pockets of insurance agencies and pharmaceutical CEOs.
But we have also cut the taxes of the rich. We let them hand vast sums to heirs that did not earn it. We allow the hoarding of wealth. Companies use food stamps and other programs to subsidize their payrolls so they can extract even more money from their workers and we let them keep it. We have people with more money than they know what to do with and they hide it from the IRS because we let them and don't provide the funding to properly investigate.
If we taxed 99.99% of a billion dollars there would still be a million dollars of wealth remaining. Nobody has a billion dollars without first taking it from workers. It's long past time we stripped the Ill gotten wealth from our exploiters and actually helped people with it.
Numerous studies have shown that happiness does not increase past 100k income or so, when basic needs and luxuries are met. But wealth does decrease empathy and giving and that income inequality leads to decaying infrastructure and greater property crime.
We need to not only drastically increase the income tax on the upper brackets but we need an ongoing wealth tax.
