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host, I don't think inequality is a coincidence. The difference in our views is that I think some degree of income and wealth inequality, particularly when it is based on work and not merely passive investment, is a feature of the system, not a bug. You think inequality of means is a bad thing in and of itself, or at least that's what I understand you to be saying.
If the inequality in the US was of the Czarist or Bourbon variety I might agree with you. But we have no substantial idle aristocracy in this country, and the masses aren't starving (to the contrary, they're obese).
That's why I don't get agitated about the things you do. We disagree on the premises. That's why I started that inequality thread - I genuinely don't understand why some people think it's a terrible thing that someone else has more than they do, so long as they are clothed and housed and getting enough to eat. I can understand resenting those who got their money fraudulently, but I can't understand resenting those who have more simply because they have more. And even after all the posts in that thread I still don't understand why some people think envy is moral.
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