by Drew Price

Created on: February 25, 2008

I realize that we are a capitalist society and our success as a nation is a result of that. However, the fact that a very small percentage of our population has the majority of the money leaving the larger percentage of the country fighting tooth and nail for whatever money is left. Our middle class seems to be disappearing, if our government does not find a way to spread the money around better we will truly be a society of only "haves" and "haves nots." Sadly the "have nots" are not uneducated people that choose not work, but they are hard worker skilled in specific trades and even college graduates that choose low paying professions teaching.

Many will argue that America is great, because of the unlimited opportunities. However, does everyone really have the same opportunities? I am sure that those few that do have and control the majority of our nations wealth have worked hard, but our entire country could benefit if those few were encouraged strongly or forced to spread the wealth.

I also am not an advocate of programs that simply function as a free handout for anyone that applies. The key to eliminating poverty is education. Whether that is funneling more money into our educational system by increasing teacher pay, making college affordable, or simply improving educational facilities. We need to find a way to educate our poverty stricken communities. This could even be teaching these individuals a trade, and providing them with free job specific training. This way we can help these individuals help themselves, instead of hand over money without knowing how it will be spent. We must hold our citizens accountable and not spoil them, but we must not forget them.

By increasing various taxes on our upper class citizens who usually depend on the lower classes to make their money anyways, we could round up enough money to fund more programs to help those in poverty acquire skills and an education that will enable them to make a living. By funding colleges and vocational schools we could allow more people to receive post secondary educations resulting in a more skilled population.

It seems many people who are well off live in a comfortable bubble unaware that their fellow citizens struggle to feed themselves. Of course, this can be the result of bad decisions and other problems, but if we are to improve our nation, we must all play a role in helping to educate our unskilled population. This may include our wealthy to pitch in a little more, or are middle class to sacrifice a little, but in the end creating more educated citizens will not only eliminate poverty, but, it will directly impact violent crimes, illegal drug use, suicide, abandonment, addiction problems, and a slew of other problems society struggles with daily.

Let us come together as a nation and get our priorities straight. We are indirectly teaching our young generations to be so ambitious they forget about others. The result of our misplaced focus on material things and personal financial gain, are the social problems that plague our nation. By neglecting to remedy these problems our nation is suggesting that wealth takes priority over safety, decency, and worst of all morality.

Learn more about this author, Drew Price.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.