How Bad Has Income Inequality Become?

How does minimum wage worker's income stack up against just the bonuses that Wall Street workers on average? They come nowhere near each other, with some Wall Street workers sitting on a wealth tower four times larger than the average annual wage of minimum wage workers.

A recent article by the Boston Globe stated that Atlanta, Georgia currently has the highest rates of income inequality within the United States. This is a trend that has risen in the last few years and is only expected to rise in the coming century. Twenty-one of fifty of the largest cities in the country saw larger gaps in income in 2013 than they did even a few short years before in 2007. With the rise of prices the minimum wage is not keeping up, and law makers both Republican and Democrat seem to fight to keep it from rising to what would be anywhere close to a minimum wage."

Is the minimum wage too low? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

[JJays]

We don't live in a free country we live in a Business

[TheJerbol]

30 BILLION dollars in bonuses on one street. That is insane

[uriustosh]

Wages have stagnated in the United States since the 70s. Minimum wage should be 15 dollar an hour, minimum.

[bottemlessfries]

I was told that the only things that limited earning potential are education, experience, skills, and personality. It makes sense at first, until you realize how few of the wealthy are "self-made". The opportunities given to some are not the same opportunities given to everyone. 
I'd love to work my way up from the son of the CEO, to the new CEO one day.
I'd love to star in a television show as a child with my famous father. 

If success was a freethrow, some people get to shoot from a foot away with a ladder. Some have to shoot from a yard away. Some have to shoot from a mile away. Sure, we're all using the same ball and the same basket, but for some, financial success is impossible to miss while for others, it's a long shot. The problem is not the wealthy, but the obstacles that the less fortunate have to face, but those obstacles are often cause or created by the wealthy due to greed, so the problem is rooted back to the wealthy.

This problem can be fixed if the wealthy were willing to sacrifice some of their earnings, but altruism does not exist. Instead of giving, they continue to take. 

"The biggest problem with the way that we've been doing things is
the more we let you have the less that I'll be keeping for me" - Nine Inch Nails

[CctpusPrime]

those wallstreet guys obviously just work 4 million times harder than a minimum wage worker...duh

[moromillas]

It still amazes me that there are people ignorant/stupid enough to think the millions of Americans on minimum wage, are just kids or high school dropouts.

[Aaron-pkky]

I've never understood bonuses. If I excel in my blue collar job, I get a raise. If I'm terrible at my job, I lose it. For bankers and executives, it seems that if they excel in their job, they get a bonus. If they're terrible at their job, they get a slightly smaller bonus and might have to "resign" eventually. Why not just make the salaries bigger and pay smaller bonuses if you're going to give everybody money anyway? Seems convoluted.

[oOPPHOo]

Let us be clear: Income inequality is, compared to the alternative, a *good* thing. There's nothing wrong with income inequality by default. The problem is when the lowest bar gets screwed over so much that the economy stagnates

[IamDeadWing]

People don't really want income equality because the majority of people dream of being rich. They want all the luxuriates of being rich, to be able figuratively buy people( literally in some cases).

[Mlogan]

The problem isn't income inequality, it's really opportunity inequality. The biggest factor now in the USA in determining your future success is not your education, personality, or work ethic, but the income/wealth status of your parents.

[titusorelius]

It is absolutely PERFECT that the thumbnail shows a homeless MAN vs Entitled Privileged White WOMEN.
That is the most accurately picture of American Income Inequality that could be used.

[menacingfox]

We should have a minimum raise and get rid of the wage cap, something like every 1000 hours you put in you are guaranteed a 25 cent raise.

[slayerSRBIJA]

Capitalism generates wealth inequality that gradually builds over the time. it's inherent to the system.

[AndiDuck]

The Federal Open Markets Committee reviewed the economic data and concluded that the Rep sequestration was "restraining economic growth" and slowing the recovery in the jobs market.

[SlurponMuhdickKillTheState]

In the US it is now as bad as it was in the "gilded age".

[MegaMementoMori]

That might mean that the overwhelming majority of workers work on a normal, non minimum wage...

[pfreddyp]

The comparison of apples to apples here is quite spot on. $200k avg salary to 7.25/hr isn't apples to apples. It's apples to peels. Watch this. Full time work in 2000 hours per year @ 40 hours per week. Convert $200k per year equals $100 dollars per hour @ 40 per week.

While the banker may work on average more than 40 hours they aren't working 13 times more hours. $100/$7.25 = 13 times more per hour.

A minimum wage earner just has to work harder and longer, that's all. Get up at the crack of dawn and pull a 104 hour shift every day and you can make out like a banker.

There's a vicious cycle at work here too in that the less money people have to get by the more motivated they are to work for less and less out of necessity. While at the same time the corporations and banks are overtly crying a river or tears of how hard done by they are that particular narrative is not supported by any of their balance sheets. Globally, they show record profit, record cash hoarding and record tax evasion.

But they will fucking kill you over marijuana and not skip a beat. Who are the real criminals again?

[GG-hiif]

All of this rests under the assumption that inequality is an inherently bad thing.

[adge]

The amount of money you make is directly proportionate to how good you are selling something, and selling yourself. That is the very point of capitalism. If we start trying to even out the wages so everyone gets the same then capitalism is dead.

[legendary]

I recently listened to a conservative radio host say that Citizens United gave the people a level ground in politics. Without shame he was twisting the facts and admitting that he loves money in politics. Conservatives want an oligarchy.