All Men Created Unequal: Trends and Factors of Inequality in the United States

Although the Gross Domestic Product of the United States has been steadily rising since the 1950s, the gap between rich and poor is increasing (see Figure 1). John Kenneth Galbraith explained the importance of inequality when he stated, “People are poverty-stricken when their income, even if adequate for survival, falls markedly behind that of the community. Then they cannot have what the larger community regards as the minimum necessary for decency” (Hernadez 1999 p.36). Income inequality has increased over the past thirty years. However, the 1980s marked a disturbing trend in inequality. In the 1970s, inequality existed because the wealth of the upper classes was increasing at a faster rate than the wealth of the poor; in the 1980s, the rich were becoming richer while the poor were becoming poorer (Levy and Murname 1992).