Research on the Key Causes and Policy Responses of the Gap Between Rich and Poor in the United States

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-440-2_60How to use a DOI?

Keywords

America’s wealth gap; Wealth distribution; Progressive taxation; Equal access to education; Structural discrimination; Policy capture; Universal basic income; Antitrust; Political contribution reform

Abstract

The continuous expansion of the gap between the rich and the poor in the United States is the result of the joint effect of the transformation of economic structure, system defects and the imbalance of social power. Through historical analysis, transnational comparison and economic modeling, this paper systematically discusses its multi-dimensional causes: technological progress and globalization aggravate the polarization of the labor market, and the return to capital is higher than the growth of labor income for a long time, forming a “wealthpower” closed loop. The regressionary tax system, stratification of educational resources and structural discrimination perpetuate inequality of opportunity, while interest groups capture policy making through political contributions and further weaken the ability to redistribute. The study critically assesses the limitations of existing policies (e.g., tax adjustments, welfare expansion), and proposes systemic reforms, including uniform capital gains and personal income tax rates, universal health care and basic income, breaking education stratification, curbing capital monopolies, and reforming election financing. The conclusion emphasizes that it is necessary to reconstruct the distribution order through the coordinated reform of economy, politics and social culture, and learn from the governance experience of northern Europe and Germany to cope with the challenges of technological revolution and political resistance. This paper provides a theoretical framework and practical approach for understanding the complex mechanism of inequality in the United States and designing equity policies.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Zeyuan Chen
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/07/10
TI  - Research on the Key Causes and Policy Responses of the Gap Between Rich and Poor in the United States
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 11th International Conference on Humanities and Social Science Research（ICHSSR 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 519
EP  - 527
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-440-2_60
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-440-2_60
ID  - Chen2025
ER  -