How to Solve the Most Urgent U.S Economic Issue of All Time 

This essay is about severely unequal income and wealth.  It applies to economies that feature free markets, competition, worker mobility, and obscenely high-end incomes. It is truncated to match the reading habits of most readers. 

The Principle Issue behind gross inequalities of wealth and income in the U.S. arise from our inheritance laws. Inheritances are neither earned nor taxed. Today, the top 10 percent of our residents hold 90 percent of our wealth ($170 trillion worth), while our bottom 50 percent have no net wealth at all. Wealth is denied to one-half our population because of partisan tax laws. They must be changed. There is no other way to correct this mammoth problem.

The Vision: To achieve a fair Living Wage for all households in the US to a minimum annual wage of $85,000 per household. 3,100 US counties would have their own set of scales, updated annually, that match their real costs of living.

A Bonus: We need to require economics and creative thinking at all grade levels (K – 12) to help break the back of poverty before it can shatter the hopes and dreams of the poor.

The Cost to Tax-Payers: Is zero dollars. The costs are automatically paid by increased wages from GDP increases (followed by higher profits and wages, expected to be $1.2 trillion annually). The inheritance tax would be re-instated to its pre-2010 levels in which the first $10 million of inherited wealth would be tax-free. Inheritances above $10 million would be subject to a 15 percent tax.

Benefits: Increased household incomes would be paid entirely by higher wages such as child care, food, health care, transportation costs, housing, internet and mobile expenses, obesity, mental health issues, crime rates, incarcerations, higher life expectancies; greater upward mobility; and greater participation by workers in private investment activities.

Management: A group of highly qualified PhD economists (from academia, private, and public sectors) under the leadership of the Federal Reserve Board chair person. Major tasks for this group (beyond low inflation, low interest rates, and full employment) would be to assure adequate flows of new money (M1) to credit unions; neighborhood banks; to assure adequate competition in US markets; and to limit mergers and acquisitions. Expected time to implement: 10 years.

Code of Ethics: Oversight and implementation of the full plan would require men and women of the highest degree of intellectual, moral, and societal attributes dedicated to the Constitution and to the real needs of the US and its residents.