Wealth and Poverty in US Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Wealth and Poverty in US - Essay Example Whether through being discovered for unknown talents, creating the next big invention, or because of a lottery win that will fill the coffers, every American might become one of the lucky many who become over night sensations and bath in champagne every night, except for one small problem – there is no truth in the myth. The land of opportunity has become a land of obstacles, mostly thrown in front of the middle class by those who see that their own profits will suffer if they support legislation that will empower the middle class once again and begin the process of lifting the lower classes out of their struggle and poverty. There was a point in Western life where working a descent job was possible from merely a secondary education and from that job it was possible to have cars, a house, and a one income family. Somewhere in the disparities that have come between pay and the cost of living this is not possible anymore. The world turned from one in which the struggle of the wo rker was turned around by unions to one which was turned back on itself so that the disparity between the very wealthy and the worker once again left hard working people drowning in debt and despair. It is not clear exactly when this shift began. It is clear that somewhere along the way workers were taught they would not likely be workers for very long and that in supporting the wealthier 1% they were in effect protecting themselves for the time when they would become a member of that elite group. The worker of the 21st century is just on his or her stopping point before great wealth comes or a shot at celebrity will propel them to a point where tax incentives of the rich will be theirs to enjoy. The worker is no longer respected for their ethic but driven down by insinuations that they are just not trying as hard as the rest of their peers. The story from recent history that best describes the problem of believing in the dream of becoming rich is described by the emergence of the R epublican supported character of Joe the Plumber from the 2008 Presidential Campaign. Wurzelbacher and Tabback wrote a book on Joe the Plumber about how he represented the average working class individual as he asked a question of President Obama before he won the race for President during his journey to Ohio. Joe the Plumber is described as â€Å"an American folk hero and the ultimate icon for the American class† (Wurzelbacher and Tabback 1). Joe created a scenario that padded his question with ideas about how the tax program that then Candidate Obama had in mind would affect him if he bought the company that he intended to buy. President Obama answered the question by showing him how the tax rates were intended to preserve the income of the workers, just like Joe, while providing for tax cuts for small businesses that made fewer than $250,000.00 per year. Joe felt this was not a good deal for him, despite how his realistic position was fully supported by the tax program. Ho wever, the question that he asked was predicated on the idea that he was going to purchase a company that would bring in between $250,000.00 and $280,000.00 per year. The fact was that ‘Joe’ was in no financial position to buy the company and as of the date of his question was not going to find the funds any time soon. While he was catapulted to fame and began to become a part of the political machine, in essence finding that pie in the sky dream, he was still one in a million. He was being used in order to create the idea that what is good for the wealthy is good for the working class and the poor