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Originally Posted by loquitur
MM, I accept that there are widening disparities in income. Empirically I don't think it's an open issue: it definitely is happening. Historically, when there has been massive technological-innovation-driven dislocation in the economy, there has been widening income disparity, because those who are able to harness the power of the new technology gain more from its benefits, and it takes some time for the benefits to disperse generally through the economy. That's why we had robber barons at the end of 19th and beginning of the 20th century, as the country was installing electricity, roads, cars, railroads, mass production factories, etc etc etc. And it's why Michael Dell, Bill Gates, and their ilk are billionaires today.
What I want to know is why you think the mere fact of unequal incomes at any particular point in time is a problem. Unless you begrudge other people their success - and I can't imagine you're that kind of person - why does it hurt anyone if someone else does well? I could understand it if this was ancien regime France, or Tsarist Russia, where you had miserable serfs in barely subsistence-level lives, with small pockets of hereditary idle nobles who lived lavishly and contributed nothing. But that's not the US by a long shot.
I want everybody in this country to be rich. I want everyone to have the opportunity to chase their dreams and realize them. And for those who manage to succeed, I don't want to punish them for their success.
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It is not the mere fact of unequal incomes. I really don't care that there are rich people and I am not. Hell, I have rich people in my family. My own parents are pretty well off. I certainly don't begrudge my parents because I know exactly how hard they worked to get it. But even they will tell you that there's something wrong going on today. My stepfather has been a well-paid executive for more than 40 years, and he will tell you that the executive branch of business today is out of control. The middle class is disappearing. Median incomes will not support the nuclear family anymore, yet a select few are drowning in money that they didn't earn in any quantifiable way. That they couldn't
possibly have earned. And I'm not talking about people like Bill Gates. Obviously Bill Gates changed the world as we know it. I'm talking about CEOs and other top corporate executives who are earning millions - tens of millions, hundreds of millions - in undeserved perks and bonuses when the people who work for them are faced with dealing with the consequences of the increasingly funneled nature of our economy.
It is not whining or sour grapes. It is simply bewilderment and the disbelief that so many people are willing to ignore it...and even try to justify it. But it's only a matter of time...as more and more people who are used to getting by fall into the net of poverty, it will become more and more an urgent issue. For it's not a static phenomenon. Eventually, like all the insanity based on greed before it, the bubble will burst.