system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: The Controversy With the American Economic System, and Why "The Poor Stay Poor"?
gpt
The question is a bit broad.  But broadly speaking there is a view, generally held by liberals, that the American economic system tends toward a concentration of wealth in the hands of the relatively few, while it becomes increasingly difficult for those of lesser means to get ahead.  In general, the solutions favored by liberals tend to involve some form of wealth redistribution, including, for example, increasing taxation of the wealthy to fund social programs that benefit the poor.

Conservatives tend to believe that this type of redistribution is counterproductive because it discourages investment while diverting funds to inefficient programs that in turn discourage productivity.  To put it simply (and somewhat crudely), they think that higher taxation sucks money out of the economy that would otherwise be invested in further economic grown and putting money into gratuitous social programs like welfare just makes people more complacent.