Junior Achievement Essay Jacob Eriksson

You find yourself, along with ninety nine other arbitrary participants, in a room with no windows
and a lone door, guarded by a man likely trained in hand to hand combat, who only accepts slices
of bread for safe passage. It just so happens that there are one hundred loaves of bread in the
room. he only issue here is that among the hundred people, ten of them split fifty of the loaves,
leaving the other ninety people with the left overs. he door opens and a masked man walks in,
demanding a slice of bread to spare your life. !eluctantly, everybody gives up a small portion of
their bread. his is much more ta"ing #see what I did there$ on the lower ninety percent than the
other ten, to which it barely makes a dent. You have learned to accept your fate, receiving your
portion of bread every month, the same amount as last time. Every slice of bread is vital to your
survival but you have no way to get out, lest you sacrifice what little you have to escape into the
unknowing void behind the door. he top ten percent have no problem getting by, practically
bathing in the dough #that%s a pun$ hoarding unnecessary e"tras with which they have nothing to
do. his is the situation currently facing Americans in today%s world. he top ten percent of
income earners control half of the wealth of the entire population, between &ne'hundred'
thousand to seventeen million dollars. (ith such an e"treme gap something must be done about
the growing income disparity in America. he strength of )nions is a power that must be utili*ed
to its full potential in order to build upon what little the middle, and more importantly lower,
class earns. A proportional ta" plan along with a minimal rate is necessary to help balance the
distribution of wealth based on an annual salary, along with the gross amount of ta" loopholes.
+ifty years ago, the )nited ,tates had appro"imately thirty percent of its workers in unions.
oday, the )nited states has dropped to one third of that. )nions are a very important part of the
Junior Achievement Essay Jacob Eriksson
working class, both lower class and middle class. )nions provide workers with a voice with
which they earn rights and power in the workplace. he ultimate control is sei*ed from the
management and workers in a )nion have significantly larger control over their jobs, as well as
their salary. he fact that a majority of the working class does not have this benefit makes it all
the more necessary. here have been efforts to increase this power, such as the -ational .abor
!elations Act. In theory, this allowed employees the ability to efficiently and practically join and
support .abor )nions. he only issue is that it did not cover /workers who are covered by the
Railway Labor Act (RLA) agricultural employees, domestic employees, supervisors, federal,
state or local government workers, independent contractors and some close relatives of
individual employers (Wikipedia, ational Labor Relations Act)! "hat is a lot of uncovered
ground! A realistic solution to the problem is the #mployee $ree %hoice Act (#$%A)! "he #$%A
is meant to amend the flaws in the RLA related to the power, coverage, and institutionali&ation
of 'nions! "his act has been brought up in congress a large number of times, although it has
never been passed! (etitions are circling around the internet, and it is imperative to raise
support and show concern for the passing of the act in order to help the income disparity in
America!
&ne of the largely debated issues in the upcoming election revolves around ta"ation. +rom one
perspective, there will be e"treme ta" cuts for all levels, and a variation in the distribution of
federal spending, the details of which have not been specified. &n the other end of the spectrum,
there has been the proposal of a proportional ta" for the rich, stating that persons who make over
two hundred fifty thousand dollars will see a raise in salary ta"es by three to five percent. 0ue to
the e"ponential growth of income and interest rates of wealth above two hundred fifty thousand
Junior Achievement Essay Jacob Eriksson
dollars, the e"tra money spent on ta"es does not create a significant enough dent to destroy the
stability of the household, yet still provides a substantial amount of money that can be put to
good use in federal spending such as education and reducing the -ational 0ebt. )nfortunately, a
large deal of this income comes from capital investments, which is ta"ed at half the level of their
salary. .arge scale investment holders need to have increased capital ta" rates, much like their
salary ta", to prevent e"treme ta" deduction due to the fact that they earn proportionally less
money through their salary than through investment. &ne solution to balancing the income
disparity revolves around the mortgaged interest deduction. favoring people with large estates,
this deduction is based on the cost of interest for an owned estate, as well as the property value.
A predetermined percentage of the cost of the estate is valued as a ta" deduction, and is removed
from the overall income when evaluating the percentage of ta"es. .owering the mortgage interest
deduction affects the income e"ponentially in that, the more e"pensive the property, the more
money you pay in ta"es. he only issue with lowering the mortgaged interest deduction is that it
falls to the middle class as well, although still significantly less. Increasing the estate ta" is a
very sound alternative to lowering the mortgaged interest deduction due to the fact that it is a
ta"ation on the transfer of wealth to predecessors if and only if the property owned is valued over
one million dollars. Increasing the value of the estate ta" is a surefire way to hit the super rich
with more ta"es, avoiding punishing the lower and middle class, and balancing the level of
income disparity. ,till, after all these benefits, leave it to the rich to find loopholes smaller than
o"ygen atoms can fit through #or as &J ,impson would argue, the ones he couldn%t fit through$.
In particular, what comes to mind are the infamous /,wiss 1ank Accounts.2 3any people with a
very high income use ta" havens that provide a safe place to store money while avoiding
Junior Achievement Essay Jacob Eriksson
ta"ation on wealth, an easy way to hide illegal transactions from the feds. A simple remedy is to
crack down on harboring off shore bank accounts by implementing policy preventing the ease of
transactions between overseas bank accounts, also impairing big time criminals from passing
under the radar undetected.
(ithout enough effort from those with so much to say and no voice, and without the silencing of
those with nothing to say and voices to be heard across countries, can the income disparity be
dealt with realistically. &nly through the communication between the working class and those
who seek to support them can a strong enough bond be formed to lift the ninety percent out of
the bottom half of the wealth distribution. &nly through he reevaluation of all the shortcuts, fast
lanes, and loopholes of the overly wealthy can the over'e"cessive money hoarding be dealt to the
masses. &nly with the effort of all the constituents of the American people may the growing
income disparity be readily and realistically dealt with. &nly then will everybody share the
opportunity to taste a slice of the American 0ream4 a dream of hope, prosperity, and apparently
bread.
Junior Achievement Essay Jacob Eriksson
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