(04-07-2016, 10:57 AM)Kerim Wrote: This is a tough topic. I hope to be in the same boat as you someday, mike, with a lot of income and assets keeping me any my family safe and comfortable. (And I think that I am on the way!)
I think that the vast majority of Americans are comfortable with a fair amount of wealth inequality. It is in our DNA as Americans, and that inequality is fundamental to the entrepreneurial spirit of the country and the ideas you note -- that anyone can work hard to get ahead. Indeed, for the past fifty years or so there seems to have been very little discontent on this front.
But even I -- as an aspiring rich person -- have to concede that wealth inequality has gotten really out of hand in recent decades. (Watch this video!) The people who are motivated to bash the rich are not necessarily lazy. I completely understand the frustration of working hard and seeing no forward movement in your life. It does feel more and more like the common folk are just commodities to further enrich the holders of capital. Improving the distribution of wealth and improving personal incomes throughout all levels of society would (I think) go a really long way towards improving the economy. Is that inconsistent with my own interests as an aspiring rich person? I'm not sure. But I suspect not.
I don't think people upset about these issues see you as the enemy. I think their ire is more directed at the uber-wealthy, at Wall Street, at big corporations, and especially financial firms.
I watched the video, Oh brother---Mother Jones---Kerim, Mother Jones as a source! LOL, I recall that rag from the 70's. Pure crap, not to mention anything, any study a Harvard Professor would conduct would be worthless. College today is where freedom, personal liberty, sacrifice, freedom and EDUCATION goes to die, especially at the elite school like Harvard.
The biggest problem is big government. Their taxation, their regulations, their hatred for anyone who can rise above and be successful despite their control. There is a whole lot more as to why the middle class disappeared but most of it has to do with our own government policies from Clinton on up. Even Regan destroyed the farms in this country. Our government then destroyed manufacturing and is now destroying health care. The IT field is being stripped of American workers in favor of a cheaper foreign visa holder. It goes on and on and on.
I am not uber wealthy, not even close. However, I don't have my eye on their money. I already know THEY pay for most of our welfare programs. Look at the USA disability logs and food stamp increases just in the last 8 years! Research it. Who do you think pays for that. Who do you think is promoting that Try to research how many immigrates use some sort of public assistance when most legal ones have sworn an oath not to? Illegal, another matter. We all pay for that. I have two legal immigrates in my family that just immigrated over the last two years. I know this topic.
This big government we have had over the past 20 years has NOT served America well.