The growing disparities between the economic classes continue to deepen. The rich continue to get more money while the poor continually do just the opposite. What is said to be the cause of this real life issue affecting not only today’s generation but the many generations to come? Some might think they are able to narrow the problem down to one issue, but in actuality, many issues are the root of the source. The growing divide between those with money and those without money is a repercussion of many things that have accumulated into the situation the world faces today such as the labor force and the education system. One would be able to cite many problems within the education system that hinder the lower class while allowing the upper classes to prosper and, therefore, deepening the divergence between the classes. An example of this would be the gap year. The gap year is a program that allows students to take time off, generally one year, from schooling so that they are able to indulge into other cultures and ways of life before they go off to pursue a higher form of education (Sherifi). Students embark on their gap year for about a year by travelling or getting internships; anything that will allow them to open their eyes to new things instead of being surrounded by the same people every day within the walls of their respective high schools (Sherifi).  Many scholars have noted how the gap year is able to benefit those who take it in positive ways that lead to their academic success (O’Shea 4). At face value the gap year seems like a great endeavor for students to embark on, but hidden behind the gap year are its negative connotations toward the economic class. One scholar has argued that the middle class has been putting educational reforms into place for years in order to allow its offspring to prosper (Apple). These educational reforms put advantages into place for its benefit while ignoring the disadvantages it places on the lower class (Apple). These one sided benefits are also happening elsewhere. Another example would be within the labor force. The corporate owners of businesses are finding new ways to cut down their expenses by taking away jobs from their workers (Reber). This is done by the new additions of technology to the company such as mechanics and automated machinery (Reber). The new age of technology permits robotics that will do the work that was before done primarily by those within the lower class (Reber). The lower class jobs are being stripped away by from its individuals and they are left to fend for themselves. These individuals are mostly brought into their situation of being in the lower class without any wrong doing; they were born into it. They then are disadvantaged from the start with less money for education and the need to work as soon as possible in order to make a living (Apple). Without higher education, however, a job with life sustainable wages is hard to come across. The lower class individuals who do want to pursue college will still be disadvantaged because of educational reforms like the gap year. The gap year is known to give advantages to those who take it, but since taking a gap year will cost more money, those within the lower class will not be able to pursue it. Subsequently, there are many things that contribute to the growing gap between the rich and the poor, such as the labor force and the educational reforms of today. However, one might not notice the small aspects that help contribute to the growing economic gap crisis, such as the gap year, which is widely only known for being beneficial. 

There are many articles, studies, and journals written on the many benefits of the gap year, in fact, one might not be able to even find a source talking negatively about the gap year. The overall consensus of the idea of the gap year is it will benefit its pursuers during their time in college or university and ensure their success both in higher education and in their career (O’Shea 2). The data provided from Joseph O’Shea’s book Gap Year: How Delating College Changes People in Ways the World Needs relays the actual experiences of people who took a gap year (8). O’Shea then analyzes how their time spent volunteering helped changed their outlook on life and how it affected their development within psychological theory (10). O’Shea details how he went about this by saying:

First, I show how the year not only served to develop how participants think—the processes through which they come to understand the world—but also changed what they think—the particular meanings they make of themselves, others, and world around them. I then examine the implications of these changes and argue that the gap year promoted participants’ development as cosmopolitan citizens and community members, enriching what I refer to as their civic meaning-making. In the last chapter, I show how the experiences detailed in the narratives and the theories of education and human development can aid in creating and designing a gap year that helps change people in ways the world needs. (O’Shea 10)

O’Shea hopes to illustrate to his readers that the gap year is not only beneficial to those who take it, but also to the world we live in (10). He even goes so far to state that the world desperately needs people to pursue a gap year (O’Shea 10). What O’Shea does not include in his book, are the repercussions the gap year may have on the lower class. The little information that O’Shea does provide on the arguments made against the gap year, he makes out to be a minute problem that is easily fixed. One of the few problems he brings up is that some students do not take a proper gap year that is spent travelling or volunteering and not making the time spent on the gap year meaningful and, therefore, not yielding the desired results (O’Shea 4). O’Shea never brings up the prices the gap year costs for students to experience the gap year. Data acquired from gapyear.com states that the gap year only being available to the upper middle class is an old stigma that is a fallacy today (Sherifi). Macca Sherifi claims that the gap year costs between 5000 to 7000 pounds (Sherifi). This amount converted to US dollars runs upwards to almost $10,000. Those within the middle class do not want to spend this amount of money, let alone the lower class even having that amount. The article written in the Huffington Post on the costs of the gap year relays the statement that the gap year is affordable by saying that those who wish to take it may not cost a thing if they simply stay at home (Fisk). However, in O’Shea’s book, the gap year only yields benefits to those who make their time meaningful, meaning that one must be willing to pay for its benefits (4). Some of the benefits of the gap year are improved grades during one’s time spent in higher education no matter what his or her previous grades were in high school. Improved education then leads to better jobs and higher incomes (O’Shea 7). In all, taking the gap year can only improve one’s life because of all the benefits it provides.  

In order to yield the most benefits from the gap year; however, one must be willing to commit to its costs, but one group in the economic class is not able to, creating a divide. The growing divide is the result of the many issues that start within the education system. Nonetheless, some might believe that it is the result of the labor market and nothing else. The primary argument for this group would be that the automation of the labor force is taking away jobs that are mainly performed by workers within the lower class (Reber). The CEO’s of large companies are trying to reduce all types of costs in order to yield the highest profits (Reber). This, in turn, perpetuates the growing socioeconomic divide of the classes by allowing the rich, corporate heads to become more profitable while leaving the low class workers without any financial income to support their families (Reber). The rich are then able to will their profits and possibly their business away to their children in order to further the financial prosperity for their future families (Reber). The lower class individuals, however, are left without income to support themselves or their families, stifling their attempts to be able to climb their way out of the lower class and into some sort of financial security (Reber). The error made in this argument would be that it leaves out the process one must undergo that determines an individual’s success in his or her career field.  The education system is one of the main determinants in the process that establishes an individual’s career path, but the poor have a daunting task of being able to maintain longevity in the education system due to its extreme costs (Apple). Most of the jobs with higher salaries require higher forms of education (Apple). A general practice doctor, for example, is one of the most profitable careers one could pursue, making over $100,000 a year that increases as he or she specializes in a certain realm within the medical field (“Medical School”). In order to obtain this lucrative career, one must have undergone at least four years of undergraduate school and another four years of medical school (“Medical School”). Specialization is then done through residency at a hospital through hands on training and generally requires three years of doing so (“Medical School”). However, doctors are known for having extremely high rates of student loan debts that can reach upwards of $200,000 that take years upon years to pay off (Kristoff). Lower class individuals do not have the money nor the time needed to obtain this type of career, but without the dedication of time and money, one would not be able to achieve a lucrative career like the given example. Even though the advances made in technology like robotics are taking away the jobs of lower class individuals, technology is not the only cause of the growing divide of the economic classes; higher education also plays a major role in an individual’s financial success. As said before, the gap year is a way students can ensure a successful time in higher education as it is able to benefit its pursuers (O’Shea 7). The gap year has shown to even have an impact on the financial outcome of its students in a prosperous way (O’Shea 7). However, the gap year is another added financial burden to those in the lower class, prohibiting them to take advantage of the gap year’s benefits. 

All of the benefits of the gap year can only be obtained by those within higher economic brackets of the social classes because they are the only ones who are able to afford it. This problem only exacerbates the issue of the growing divide of the classes since lower class individuals are not able to afford the gap year and then cannot have the ability to be able to get ahead of others (Heath). Scholars have noticed that upcoming generations will have a harder time maintaining the same economic status they grew up in, and therefore, they will need something that will allow them to have an advantage over their peers (Heath). The gap year is a way of doing so, but lower class individuals are not able to pursue it and will, therefore, prevent the lower class from the much needed escape route out of their socioeconomic status (Heath). The deepening gap between the classes begs the question on how it can be fixed and not exaggerated by things like the gap year. So, how can someone in the lower class be able to take a gap year in order to reap all of its benefits? One solution might be when students fill out forms like the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the information the student gives will be able to determine if the student is in financial need and then will qualify for the gap year. The government could then set up a program that allows students that qualify for the gap year to travel abroad and work to be able to pay for room and board. This way, only students who are determined to be in financial need will be able to take a gap year. Then, the lower income students will have an advantage over their higher income peers. The gap year has proven to help students improve their grades in college or at university. If lower income students were the only students that were able to pursue a gap year, they could then finally be at an equal starting point with their student counterparts. The only issue then would be the costs of a higher education. Financial aid and scholarships can only go so far for lower income students, since the educational system is already rigged against them by educational reforms set into place by the middle class. As a consequence, lower income students without financial aid or scholarships cannot accomplish a degree at a college or university. The solution to this problem would be free higher education for the same students who qualified for the gap year. These ideas could then help the lower income individuals to prosper within their education and, therefore, their careers and their incomes. 

To be brief, the growing disparities between the socioeconomic classes is caused by many aspects of society. From the labor market turning more towards technological advances made in today’s world such as automated robotics to the educational reforms put into place, the lower class has been put behind while the upper class continues to pull away. The result is an immense gap between the economic classes that only continues to deepen. An example of one of the many things contributing to the socioeconomic class issue would be the gap year. The gap year is widely known as beneficial; however, it has hidden repercussions against the lower class, while benefitting the upper class (Heath). The gap year has costs that the lower class is not able to afford, but the gap year does help those who pursue it in his or her education, career, and income (Heath). The lower class is already disadvantaged while the upper class is already privileged (Heath). The gap year is yet another element that contributes to the continued privilege of the upper class and the continued disservice to the lower class. Thus, the gap year furthers the continuous and growing gap between the economic classes. One could propose the idea to have the lower class individual’s gap year and higher education be paid for by the government. This way, the lower class individuals would be able to have the advantage of the gap year while being able to afford a higher education. The gap year will be able to benefit the lower income students in ways they could not have imagined or even thought of before. The gap year has shown to be significantly influential in its pursuers outcome in not only education, but also his or her career (O’Shea 2). The only downfall of the gap year would be its cost. Lower income individuals are not able to afford the gap year, leading to the growth of the lower class (Heath).  Some might have not noticed the gap year as being harmful in any way, but it is yet another factor that is widening the gap of the socioeconomic classes. 
