While racism remains an insidious issue in our country, the disparity in income is likely to be the cause of the next civil uprising (“What’s good for the 1 percent isn’t good for America,” op-ed column, March 17).

The chasm between the haves and the have-nots, without regard to race, began widening during the Great Recession and has continued. Poverty isn’t simply a black inner-city crisis, but an issue that pervades both urban and rural America.

It is troubling that a country that provides billions of dollars in foreign aid and has spent billions more on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan can’t agree on spending money to help the unemployed and poverty-stricken in our country.

Also inexplicable is Congress’ failure to raise the federal minimum wage so that the working poor might reach the point where they don’t have to rely on the government subsidies conservative ideologues detest.

The price paid by people who struggle to get by is higher than any amount of money the government provides to help them.

DONALD CARR

Sylvania

First Published April 13, 2014, 4:00 a.m.