( CNN ) -- `` Less than human . '' `` Lost . '' `` Courageous . '' `` Unwanted . '' Those are a just few of the dozens of responses CNN iReport got when we asked our online community how their incomes make them feel . `` My income makes me feel unwanted because I , like many people , have to rely on food assistance , '' said Marcus Kastler , a 31-year-old from Kansas . `` There is a huge gap that is unfair and unrealistic . ( Low ) Minimum wage keeps this gap wide because you ca n't advance without higher education . We need to start more entry level jobs so that low income can work their way up . Lower the cost to go to college so we can afford to go . '' iReport : My income makes me feel ... Plenty of pundits this week are talking about America 's `` War on Poverty , '' which has lasted 50 years now . Somewhat missing from the conversation is the war that has emerged since the 1964 State of the Union address , when President Lyndon B. Johnson , as The Nation describes it , `` slowly put on his black-framed reading glasses , looked around at the assembled dignitaries and immediately issued a call to action '' on American poverty . America 's new war is on income inequality . It 's time we put our glasses on and saw this shift clearly . I started reporting on income inequality last year because CNN readers wisely voted me to cover that topic as part of the Change the List project . I spent about two weeks reporting in East Carroll Parish , Louisiana , which has the largest rich-poor gap in the nation . There , I learned that the income gap can get so wide that people do n't understand each other anymore . That 's what splits one America into two . Related : The most unequal place in America . How to change course ? That 's something I 've wrestled with in recent months . Anyone who says they have all of the answers is lying to you . But I do think one way we can start to knit our nation back together is to talk about income inequality -- to acknowledge how different America is today from the time of John F. Kennedy and Johnson , when the rich were n't so stratospherically different from the rest of us , and when the minimum wage was actually worth more in real dollars than it is now . It 's clear the nation has been diverging . Since the late 1970s , the United States went from being a relatively egalitarian country to one of the more unequal places in the world . America is more unequal than Russia , Kenya and Pakistan , according to the CIA World Factbook . And the 1 % continues to do better than the rest : That group saw 86.1 % real income growth from 1993 to 2012 , according to a UC Berkeley analysis . The bottom 99 % of the population only saw 6.6 % growth in their incomes during that time . Related : Is income inequality morally wrong ? It 's not about the numbers , though -- it 's about society . There 's research to show more unequal countries tend to have problems with health , education , incarceration and infant mortality . There 's an empathy gap , too , researchers have argued in books such as `` The Spirit Level , '' which was written by two epidemiologists . People stop knowing each other . That 's why we decided to ask iReporters to submit essays , videos and photos about how their incomes make them feel . The goal was to initiate a conversation about the increasingly wide range of economic experiences in the United States . Aimee Clark , a 30-year-old in Colorado , said her income makes her feel `` lost . '' `` I feel lost because although we are not in poverty anymore , we are not financially safe , '' she said . `` We still live paycheck to paycheck , just not as dire as years before . I feel lost because I can taste the 'American Dream , ' but it 's like a tease . '' Related : War on poverty is n't over . I think many Americans can identify with that limbo . The high cost of education -- a ladder out of poverty -- was another consistent theme . `` I feel like I 'm living from paycheck to paycheck and owe more than I 'm worth , '' said Nicole Lucas of Baltimore . She said she is struggling to pay down student loans while working a part-time job that has no benefits . `` People say 'go to school , market yourself , cut back , ' etc . However , the recession taught me that you can have a good job , have a 401 ( k ) and have a degree , but still be the last to know your job is going to go under . '' Recently , there has been much talk about what would increase `` economic mobility '' in the United States , which is the term academics use when they 're talking about the American Dream . The United States has has fallen behind many European nations in that category . `` If you want to live the American Dream , '' Kate Pickett , a researcher who studies income inequality , told me last year , `` you 'd better go to Denmark or Finland . '' There , it 's easier to get ahead . Related : 5 things the world could teach America . So it 's telling that Lucas , the woman in Baltimore , also said the American Dream , to her , is `` not sustainable , let alone attainable . '' It feels out of reach . Shifting attitudes like that should scare us all . Who wants to live in a country where people do n't believe they can get ahead anymore ? Not all of the iReport responses to our query were negative , of course , but I did n't see any reports from the super-rich , either . ( Buffett ? Bloomberg ? There 's still time ... ) Julie West of Columbus , Ohio , said her income makes her feel `` grateful . '' She lost her job in 2008 but found a new , lower-paying gig in 2010 . `` Many people that were hit with unemployment in 2008 lost homes , experienced many hardships just as I did , '' she said . `` Many have never fully recovered . I feel like I had been given a chance to turn it around for myself . I will always be grateful . '' Related : How to help Inequality , USA . That 's pretty incredible , huh ? Not just because West has managed to remain `` grateful '' in the face of hardship but because she 's aware that others are n't so lucky . She has empathy for other Americans . That 's something all of us , regardless of income , could take to heart . It 's not that the War on Poverty is over . It is n't , and it should n't be . But extreme poverty exists , now more than in recent decades , alongside extreme wealth . It 's time for `` America 's longest war '' to evolve and expand . The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of John D. Sutter . CNN iReport 's Christina Zdanowicz contributed reporting .
CNN iReport asks readers to say how their income makes them feel . The assignment follows a series by John Sutter on income inequality . Sutter reported on the `` most unequal place in America '' He says the war on poverty should morph into a war on inequality .