Whose Responsibility is the Income Gap?

I saw an interesting story in the Boston Metro last week, a national survey about the income gap between the richest and the poorest in the US and how the gap has gotten bigger over the last 25 years. Read the story here.

The part that I find really interesting is that 2/3 of the survey responses said that "the government should make sure there are jobs for everyone," but at the same time, almost 2/3 (the same people?) also said that it is not the government's responsibility to ease income differences. How can you believe one and not the other? I personally believe that it is the government's responsibility to protect the well-being of all of its citizens, which cannot happen while a growing percentage of those citizens cannot make ends meet.

I guess it is a question of how the government can deal with this problem. Maybe the people in the survey think the government should create jobs, but should not take money away from rich people in order to do so. Or, maybe they think job creation is okay so people can work themselves out of poverty, but direct services and grants for poor people are not. While you are working your way up the income ladder, how do you think the government should be helping? Is "more jobs" really the answer?

Also, if not the government, who else holds responsibility to equalize the well-being of U.S. citizens? Can we expect wealthy people to voluntarily give their money away? Most big corporations give some of their profits to charity, but it is usually a tiny percentage, and not always to programs like Crittenton Women's Union. Who else could help bridge that gap between the super-rich and the families at the bottom of the income charts?

Comments

[Leo]

When you say "Who else could help bridge that gap between the super-rich and the families at the bottom of the income charts?" Are you saying that those at the bottom of the income charts should move up a bit or are you saying everyone should have a similar income? Also, I would love to hear some practical ideas on how you would propose to do this. I'm mostly libertarian so I'm generally against the government getting involved but I am always open to new ideas