“What would you do with an extra $18,000 in your pocket?”

When an interviewer asked the question above to the interviewees, most people said that they wanted to pay off their debts.

Average employees’ yearly income of Burger king is $14,000. However Goldman Sachs gave $6.8billion in bonuses in 2009, averaging $210,000 per employee just for bonus. Even Burger King and its franchisees were violating the Fair Labor Standard Act because they failed to pay proper overtime 126times and paid under the minimum wage.

This video clip is related with the poverty line. Poverty line is the estimated minimum level of yearly income required for a family to live in a basic way according to the federal government. The video clip shows Goldman Sachs gave below the minimum wages to their employees who worked at Burger King and sometimes ended up not even paying anything. During that time, Goldman Sachs provided $6.8 billion in bonuses. Usually, the U.S government determines an official poverty line lower than actual but Goldman Sachs paid a wage under the lowered official poverty line to the Burger King employees. This action is illegal and more over, unethical.

After the turn of the 21st century, the world has sped up but the world economy has gotten worse, raising the rate of poor people and poverty. Nevertheless the property of wealthy people is getting richer.  The polarization between the rich and the poor is increasing fast. Poverty clearly influences people’s physical well-being. In my opinion, if the poor do not get treated well and receive an acceptable salary, their situations would get worse, the polarization between the rich and the poor would increase even more and then the economy would collapse.