One of the first times this suggestion was made was in conjunction with the proposal of a minimum wage in the early 20th century. During his 1932 campaign for Presidency, Franklin D. Roosevelt argued that the economic problem of the post-depression U.S. wasn't "an insufficiency of capital," but "an insufficient distribution of buying power coupled with an over sufficient speculation in production." In other words, the problem was not that the rich people didn't have enough money to invest, but that no one else had any money to buy (Long 298).

A similar theme is found in economist Ravi Batra's argument that "recessions are caused by unequal distribution of income." Batra also notes that all great depressions "have been preceded by great speculative manias triggered by high wealth disparity." Roosevelt, Batra, a

Because of all these reasons, it seems that an income ceiling would not be a good idea for the U.S. economy, because although in theory it would lessen the disparity of wealth, it would really only cause a shortage of labor and a lack of enthusiasm for working on the part of many people who were previously successful. Furthermore, the thought of mass redistribution of funds is a concept that is much more closely related to communism than it is to capitalism, and since the majority of Americans find communism to be a generally unsavory notion, a maximum wage would never be widely supported by the public.

nd many economists have agreed that as rich people become richer and more wealth is controlled by fewer people, more people are left with few or no assets. This fact creates a higher demand for loans, but the people who demand these loans are less credit-worthy, therefore the number of banks with questionable loans rises (Batra 117). The rich people become caught up in a speculative fever, which generates "missed opportunities for meaningful economic growth." These two problems combined can have devastating effects on the economy, such as recessions or depressions (Pizzigati 19).

Similarly, people would lose the incentive to work hard if they knew they did not have the opportunity to earn money and

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Approximate Word count = 884
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)