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Could America's Wealth Gap Lead To A Revolt?Dr. Dale Archer, Contributor I'm a psychiatrist and discuss business, markets and human behavior | 9/04/2013 @ 11:08AM |10,096 viewsAll the talk about income and wealth inequality over the last couple of years begs the question: Could the wealth gap lead to a revolt?What do you think the term ‘wealth gap’ means?In some ways, last week’s fast food worker strikes and rallies affecting businesses like McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, and Yum Brand’s Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC, demonstrate it already has. In 60 cities across the country, the workers were protesting the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour that keeps them in a chronic state of poverty, and demanding “a living wage” of twice that.>Chronic: long-lastingIt’s extremely difficult to organize workers in such a fragmented service industry, so the fact that these demonstrations have taken place on this scale is a sign of their determination. These demands have been growing for the past year, and are likely to spread to other industries unless the government steps in to raise the minimum wage which, given the current state of Congress, is unlikely.>Fragmented: disjointed, divided, brokenRegardless of your personal views on the minimum wage, the protesters may have a point. The gap between the nation’s top earners and the bottom 80 percent (the majority of us) has grown exponentially over the past three decades (30 years).>Exponentially: growing very quicklyFor all the employment growth and claims by many that our economy is in recovery, most of those new jobs – 6 out of 10 according to the Labor Department – are on the low end of the pay scale, which is already much lower than other first world countries (like Canada, Britain, Germany, and France). Meanwhile, the top executives of the fast food companies at the center of this storm are among the highest paid in the nation.>>Q: What’s the problem here?021590A recent YouTube video that went viral brings home just how noticeable the wealth gap in America has become. According to the video, almost all of us see the wealth distribution as unfair, and 92% of the 5,000 Americans polled think that it should be fairer.However, what is striking is the vast difference between what the average American believes the wealth gap to be, and what it actually is. The reality in graphic form shows that the bottom 40% of Americans barely register, and the top 1% already own more of the wealth than most Americans think the top 20% should own in a fair society.>>In other words…The bottom 80 percent of Americans (that’s most of us) own a meager 7% of the wealth. Or, to look at it in another way, the?wealthiest 400 Americans have the same combined wealth of the nation’s poorest – more than 150 million people, which is almost half the population. So, no matter how you slice it, when it comes to?income and wealth in America, the rich get most of the pie and the rest get the crumbs.>>Is this fair? Is this right?As more Americans are confronted with evidence of this reality, the chances of social unrest increase. >Social unrest: open, armed, and organized resistance to a governmentSo what does this say about the current economic reality of our own American pie? And how much more inequity do we need to see before the nation’s poorest, which is the vast majority, really revolt?2,3000 years ago, Aristotle was the first to state that inequality triggers revolution. That was certainly the case during the French Revolution (1787-99), when onerous taxes on the lower and middle classes enhanced the lives of the wealthiest aristocrats. The American Revolution (1775-83) was also about unfairness. Remember the rallying cry: “no taxation without representation”? That was in response to Americans being taxed for the gain of British.>Onerous: heavy, large The key to this not happening here and now has always been our belief in upward mobility: as long as average Americans feel they can better their lives and rise up the social and economic ladder, they will work within the system.?But, more and more, we are seeing this possibility?fading in America.>>Do you believe in upward mobility? Why or why not?Fortunately, we are an ambitious society, and even the poorest among us continue to dream of climbing to the next rung. As long as the power of hope?remains that anyone can better their life and grab the American dream, the current situation will be intact. But, how much longer is there going to be enough of the pie for a growing segment of the middle to lower classes of the American population to split?>Intact: not damaged or impaired in any way; complete.Questions:What is the main idea of this article?Based on this article, what connections(s) can you make between our reality and the world of Panem in Catching Fire?Ask yourself: Do you think we are nearing a revolution? ................
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