What seems to go unnoticed by many Americans is the obvious and growing wealth gap. According to the Pew Research Center, current American income is at its highest level since 1928. This great dispersion of wealth can be attributed to the “fall [of] routine producers” (Reich). Where jobs that were once accessible in the 70s are in decline due to technological advances and companies finding workers in poor countries willing to work for half the cost of usual producers. What also explains this wealth gap is the power of corporations in an age of extravagant consumption. Through the media, the demand to buy what we want is inevitable. Businesses are able to generate revenue while people are unemployed thanks to America's vast opportunities to buy what we want when we want. Added to this is the idea that “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. (Reich). When the incomes of the middle and lower classes are the same or decreasing while the incomes of the upper class improve, the wealth gap is evident (Scott). What illustrates this is that today the richest 10% of Americans hold 40% of all wealth in the United States (Scott). Another aspect allowing the richest to stay rich is the ability to pass on their wealth; otherwise known as inheritance. Even with inheritance taxes, the rich still manage to find loopholes where they don't have to pay as much, if at all. In other words, “low-income people pay a greater share of their income in sales and payroll taxes than high-income people” (Henchman). In the United States, the rich are favored while everyone else has to pay. Although it is hard to believe, education and inheritance may play a role in the growing wealth gap in the United States; with government flounder... middle of paper ....... “Bailing out capitalism.” Current History 112.757 (2013): 304-310. Academic research completed. Internet. May 5, 2014. “Paul Krugman tells Bill Moyers that inherited wealth is destroying our country. »Alternet. Np, April 18, 2014. Web. May 5, 2014. Scott, David. “Economic Inequality, Poverty, and the Provision of Parks and Recreation.” JournalOf Park & ​​Recreation Administration 31.4 (2013): 1-11.Academic Search Complete.Web. May 5, 2014.The Corporation: The pathological pursuit of profit and power. Real. Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. By Joël Bakan. 2003. YouTube. Internet. May 5, 2014. “The Rising Cost of Not Going to College.” » Pew Research Centers Social and Demographic Trends RSS Project. Pew Research Center, February 11, 2014. Web. May 4, 2014. "Who's Going to Jail? Matt Taibbi on America's Injustice Gap from Wall Street to Main Street." Truth. Np, April 15, 2014. Web. May 05 2014.