Huge concentrations of wealth corrodes the soul of any nation

A couple quotes from the Nicholas Kristof editoral linked to below:

A Hedge Fund Republic? Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times

“But there is also a larger question: What kind of a country do we aspire to be? Would we really want to be the kind of plutocracy where the richest 1 percent possesses more net worth than the bottom 90 percent?’

“I’m appalled by our growing wealth gaps because in my travels I see what happens in dysfunctional countries where the rich just don’t care about those below the decks. The result is nations without a social fabric or sense of national unity. Huge concentrations of wealth corrode the soul of any nation.”

I’ve been watching and crying over this growing problem for years.  Part of me just cannot understand how in a democratic society where the vast majority of folks are in the middle and lower economic classes this happened.  After all 9 to 1 should win ever time, right?

In large part it has happened because both political parties are unabashedly junkies when it comes to financing political campaigns.  Guess who controls their drug supply and thus them.

Our government has let the wealth gap widen by not only by changing the laws to make it easier for fat cats to get fatter, but they have also failed to act. This failure of action can be just as devastating.  In a changing financial world, our government should be trying to keep pace.  It profits the few when they do not.   We will always have greed and people willing to stretch or break the laws for personal profit.  Wall Street truly lives by the axiom, “Do unto others before they do unto you.”  It is the government’s job to control them and protect  the rest of us from them.

The other part of this may be laid at the feet of the middle and lower classes as we have bought the myth of the Horatio Alger story.  We believe in upper mobility in this country.  We believe that we may get to next “level” so self interest dictates that we leave the system alone.   The evidence says otherwise.  In fact, many studies have shown that mobility is going the other way.  Children are less well off than their parents.  It is a logic fallacy to extrapolate from a small group, but I can see this in my own extended family.

If someone gets a bigger piece of pie, someone else has to have a smaller piece of pie.  The pie has been growing in this country, unfortunately, the rich keep take a bigger and bigger slice.

I want to live in a just society where everyone has a fair share of the pie.   I want to live in a just society where one group of people does not get rich at the expense and pain of another group.  I want to live in a just society where everyone has a guarantee at a basic level of health care and social protection.

Unfortunately, this is not America in 2010.

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