How the top 1% can harm the economy

Wealth inequality is an ever increasing reality. People tend not to notice it because the middle class’s life quality has never been higher. The 1%’s income,  however, has increased much more dramatically. I would argue that this reality is hurting our economy in a tedious way. 

Image found on pewresearch.org 

Original credits found on pewresearch.org  : Dorsey Shaw; Source: Emmanuel Saez, UC Berkeley 

It all comes down to a really simple principle. When the economy stagnates, it does not go well. A healthy economy implies that people are spending money, and people do just that. Give a homeless man a dollar, and he will spend it almost immediately. Give an average person a dollar, and they might not need to spend it right away, they may even put it aside in some savings, they will still end up spending it. Give a very rich person the same dollar, and they will almost guaranteed not spend it since they already have everything they need, effectively withdrawing this dollar from circulation. One could argue that rich people will still spend their money on crazy expansive things, and while it is true that they spend much more than the average person, they still earn more than they spend. 

This phenomenon effectively makes the economy stagnate. Even worst, as I said earlier, income inequality is at an all time high. If this status quo does not change, at some point in the future, the rich will actually own the entire economy. In theory at least. I highly doubt this scenario will actually happen. The problem,  however, remains.
 

As an average person, it is really hard to come up with a solution to this since to some extant, it really comes down to the good will to do something with the money these people are not going to spend anyway. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation can be stated as an excellent example for this.
 

 If you have an opposite view to mine, I am always interested to have a polite debate.

 English is not my first language. If I made any mistakes, do not hesitate to point them out.

 Thank you for your time.

 HansB