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What can be done to reverse the trend and close the gap? According to experts, closing the gap will take a concerted, coordinated effort of U.S. government and American corporate policies. For top-down reforms, some experts recommend a redistribution of wealth via tax reforms , and capping the pay of the wealthiest corporate earners. From the bottom up, proposals include better education about debt avoidance and savings, increased public assistance for lifting the poorest out of poverty, promoting participation in savings and retirement programs, and expanding homeownership since it is a key wealth-building tool . Also proposed is boosting wages so that ordinary families can afford to save. Learn more about these important issues! Wealth inequality is sure to be a major political issue in your lifetime . It’s important to know about the existence of this trend as well as some of the different opinions so you are able to make up your own mind about this controversy. Here are some go-to resources for learning more: A good start is French economist Thomas Piketty’s influential 2014 book Capital in the Twenty-First Century . An excellent, interactive and easy to read publication Growing Apart, A Political History of American Inequality by Colin Gordon of inequality.org can be found at http://scalar.usc.edu/works/growing-apart-a-political-history- of-american-inequality/index. For a short, informative but controversial video with some great gap graphics see Wealth Inequality in America http://inequality.org/wealth-inequality-america. Economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman published an excellent summary of the extent of the problem, including some proposed solutions in Exploding Wealth Inequality in the United States http://equitablegrowth.org/research/exploding-wealth- inequality-united-states. For voices in opposition, read The Dispelling Myths About Income Inequality , http://www.forbes.com/sites/ jeffreydorfman/2014/05/08/dispelling-myths-about-incomeinequality/; and Chris Matthew’s The Myth of the 1% and the 99% http://fortune.com/ 2015/03/02/economic-inequality-myth-1-percent-wealth. Complete the crossword puzzle on the following page. PRODUCT PREVIEW
103 THE 21st CENTURY STUDENT’S GUIDE TO FINANCIAL LITERACY
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