Over the last forty years many people have said that the level of equality has reached an all-time high. The evolution of corporate welfare in the United States, aided by the spread of globalization, has placed an enormous burden on many lower-class Americans. Race is still an issue we face every day, as many minority groups are in the lowest wage percentile or live in extreme poverty, and residential racial segregation fosters the disenfranchisement of minorities due to a lack of opportunities available in areas with a concentration of poverty. American politics as a whole contributes to all of these factors that generate difficulties in everyday American life. In fact, over the past forty years we have seen a great increase in both the scope and depth of inequality based on the role of race, globalization, and corporate welfare, supported by corporate-sponsored American policies. The main factor contributing to the increase in inequality over the last forty years is corporate welfare. Term used to compare welfare payments to company benefits. Between 1990 and 1993, the federal government spent one hundred and seventy billion dollars on business subsidies. Medicaid, the federal government's most expensive social program, costs thirty billion a year. That's nearly half of what companies receive in tax breaks, grants and other government subsidies. The fact that corporations get more tax breaks than Americans get in the healthcare industry is absurd. Perhaps the best example of frustration with corporate welfare in recent years is the Occupy Wall Street protest, which embodied the frustration of American workers who had seen their jobs, their savings, and in some cases their homes disappear because of ir... middle of paper......Geography - Volume 26, Number 8 / November 16-December 31, 2005 - Bellwether Publishing, Ltd. Bellwether Publishing, Ltd., October 8, 2007. Web. November 8, 2013. . Grimaldi, James V. and Carol D. Leonnig. “Former Aide to Ex-Congressman Ney Pleads Guilty in Abramoff Case.” Washington Post. The Washington Post, February 27, 2007. Web. November 7, 2013. Smith, Jeffery. “The delayed plane ticket was charged to the lobbyist's credit card.” Washington Post. The Washington Posy, April 24, 2005. Web. November 6, 2013. Weinberg, Daniel H. “A Brief Look at Income Inequality in the Postwar United States.” Census.Gov. Current Population Reports and Web. November 9. 2013.