One of the biggest problems we face today is income inequality—the gap between the rich and everyone else keeps getting wider. And it’s not just about money. It’s about opportunity. When people don’t have enough money to cover basic needs, it affects everything—education, healthcare, job chances, and even the neighborhoods they live in. Without fair wages and opportunities, it’s hard to break out of poverty, and that’s not right.
One way we could help fix this is by raising the minimum wage. Right now, people working full-time at minimum wage still can’t afford rent, groceries, and other basic stuff. That’s crazy! If someone’s putting in the hours, they should be able to live without constantly worrying about money. Raising the minimum wage would give people more financial stability and put more money back into the economy because when people have more money, they spend it at local stores and businesses. Everybody wins.
We also need to invest in education and job training. A lot of places that used to rely on industries like coal, tobacco, or factories are struggling now because those jobs disappeared, and nothing new replaced them. People in those areas need access to training for jobs that actually exist today—like in tech, healthcare, or renewable energy. Without those opportunities, they’re stuck.
Another issue is how certain areas have been left behind for generations. I’ve learned about places like the Mississippi Delta, rural Appalachia, and South Texas—where poverty is everywhere, and people just don’t have the same chances as those in wealthier areas. The local economies in these places never recovered after their industries collapsed. To help them, we need to improve things like schools, hospitals, roads, and bring businesses back to those areas. It’s not fair that where you’re born can decide your future.
When we talk about inequality, we have to understand that it’s not just a money problem—it’s about giving people the tools and opportunities to succeed. Whether that’s a decent wage, good schools, or safe neighborhoods, everyone deserves a fair shot at a better life. Fixing this won’t happen overnight, but we have to start somewhere. We need policies that give everyone a chance to live with dignity and hope. That’s what will make our country stronger and more united.
I think there would be widespread agreement with your sentiments. People ought to be concerned with wealth concentration because the tens of thousands of very wealthy households can take over the government and cultural narratives, and make the tens of millions of other Americans give over all the power and economic growth to these tens of thousands of wealthy elite people. Extreme wealth is obscene if there are still people living in desperate poverty.
Almost everyone would also prefer to cure the problem of poverty by having people find an easier path into self-sufficiency and self-reliance. Persons who are able-bodied would generally like to earn their way in life, and support themselves. Education and job training, higher wages, and more jobs that offer pathways of promotion, skill development, and rising salaries all would help people work their own way out of poverty.
For persons with chronic health problems, mental health issues such as serious mental illness or substance use disorders, and for persons with developmental disabilities that make it difficult for them to support themselves, we ought to have a decent safety net of housing, food, and enough income to participate in the culture of society at a dignified level. The elderly (19%), the children (21%), and working-aged persons who have impairments that would prevent their economic self-sufficiency (9%) make up about half the population, and the able-bodied working population needs to be able to earn enough to pay for two persons.
In 1968, the federal minimum wage peaked in value, at about $14.70 in 2025 dollars. We ought to set the federal minimum wage to level comparable to that (say, $14 to $15), and then make annual adjustments based on the cost of living so that minimum wages remain constant in value. Ideally, we would divide up the nation into three zones, and have a general federal minimum wage, a metropolitan area federal minimum wage, and a high cost zone federal minimum wage for Hawaii, Alaska, and the metropolitan areas with the highest costs of living. I'd set the general federal minimum wage at $15, the metropolitan area minimum wage at $17.20, and the high cost zone federal minimum wage at $19. Let cities and states set their own minimum wages higher than the federal minimum wages if they think it desirable to do so. The best research on the minimum wage shows it does not significantly reduce demand for unskilled labor, and does not substantially increase prices.
Increasing the minimum wage will reduce costs for SNAP benefits, the EITC, and other income support programs. Ideally, in my opinion, we would have a federal job program and hire about 1.5 million more workers to do things like provide long-term care, affordable daycare, improve our understanding of our ecosystems and the species in our environment, and improve our infrastructure and increase the supply of social housing (non-profit affordable housing). I think if you combined guaranteed federal jobs for most workers with minimum wages that could provide a dignified standard of non-poverty living, you would solve most of the problems we have with poverty (we would be left with problems to solve in areas of mental illness, substance abuse, etc.). The resulting reduction in poverty would significantly improve racial relations in our society, and bring crime rates down.
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