The Rich Get Richer While the Poor Get Poorer

[Jemima]

From an article just posted on Comcast.net:

"NEW YORK — The rich treated themselves like royalty this holiday season. That spun the holidays into gold for Tiffany & Co. and other high-end retailers.

Wealthier shoppers traded up to more expensive gold and diamond jewelry from silver charms at Tiffany. At Saks and Neiman Marcus designer clothing and handbags were the hot holiday items."

For full article, see: http://tinyurl.com/4fykkaq

IMO, this is the kind of thing that's going to lead to civil disorder in the not very distant future. It reminds me of an audit I did a few years ago where I exited the train station in a main downtown area and saw many homeless people milling about, some using the restrooms to wash up. I walked the two blocks to my worksite where, next door, one bedroom condos were going for $800,000. This cannot last.

While the homeless may be too passive to revolt, there are ghettos within half a mile of those condos where the street gangs aren't so passive. I wouldn't live in one of those condos for free.

Despite what Jim Kunstler has to say about the 'burbs, I'm glad that's where I am!!!
What do the rest of you think about the ever-widening gap between the haves and have-nots?

[JaneV2.0]

The Calvinists among us will say that God has bestowed good fortune on the rich and powerful, and that the poor deserve their fate.
I often ponder how much better off we'd be if this country hadn't been founded by Puritans.

[Tweety]

Tonight on NPR's business program they were talking about the current list of the 400 richest people in the US, and one commentator said that everybody loves to read about the rich because we all hope to join them some day.
On the other hand, I read recently about a study that showed that the greater the disparity between rich and poor in a country, the worse the country fares in government, infrastructure, public health, education, you name it.

[JaneV2.0]

There's a book called The Spirit Level (Wilkinson and Pickett) that lays out that premise. I have it here, but haven't yet read it. I understand we have the widest gap between rich and poor of any developed country now. We've become kind of a northern-latitude banana republic.

[Dharma Bum]

Let's say all of the 500 richest people in the world that don't already live in the US moved here tomorrow. That would increase the disparity. How does that hurt us?

[kib]

Tonight on NPR's business program they were talking about the current list of the 400 richest people in the US, and one commentator said that everybody loves to read about the rich because we all hope to join them some day.
On the other hand, I read recently about a study that showed that the greater the disparity between rich and poor in a country, the worse the country fares in government, infrastructure, public health, education, you name it.

Unfortunately, I have also read that in our current society, the chances of climbing from one economic rung to another have become increasingly difficult. Not only are we less likely to become rich and famous, we're less likely to be as successful as our own parents.

[kib]

Let's say all of the 500 richest people in the world that don't already live in the US moved here tomorrow. That would increase the disparity. How does that hurt us?

It's not so much the actual people as the shift. Money = power. An additional 500 people with monstrous amounts of power moving into this country couldn't possibly bode well for the masses of poor they would exploit. Am I worse off because you have a McMansion while I have a dilapidated duplex? No, I might be envious, but I'm not worse off. But am I worse off because you want to monopolize the food market in my neighborhood and sell me poisonous faux-food at astronomical prices and you have the resources to do it, and to lobby government to make it more difficult for anyone to stop you? You betcha!

People and most especially soulless big corporations with that kind of resources and power are often just exactly that mercinary, it's how they got where they are. Not everyone, of course. Some fool buying a Firkin bag and $60,000 worth of cosmetic improvement I couldn't care less about. Someone actively mining the poor for more wealth? That's a problem for me.

[Dharma Bum]

I don't accept your equation of wealth to exploitation. If you want to focus on exploitation, fine. But they are not the same.

[Alan]

It's not so much the actual people as the shift. Money = power. An additional 400 people with monstrous amounts of power moving into this country couldn't possibly bode well for the masses of poor they would exploit. Am I worse off because you have a McMansion while I have a dilapidated duplex? No, I might be envious, but I'm not worse off. But am I worse off because you want to monopolize the food market in my neighborhood and sell me poisonous faux-food at astronomical prices and you have the resources to do it, and to lobby government to make it more difficult for anyone to stop you? You betcha!

It sounds like what you really need is a more responsible government. If you penalize the rich, will that make government more responsive to you? I think you're blaming the wrong folks.

[loosechickens]

The greater the inequality, the more total power the really wealthy hold, hence, also the ability to turn government toward their needs and desires. That's where the real problem is, the concentration of wealth by the few, which equals power and access and the ability to direct the path of legislation, etc.

You're right, Alan......what I think most ordinary people want is a more responsible government. And people being rich does not, in and of itself, make that any kind of problem. I don't envy the really wealthy their homes, jewels or portfolios. What I don't want is for them to have really outsized ability to be able to see that the regulations, laws, tax policy, etc., are engineered to continue to increase that power.

I agree with kib. It's the very wealthy and the power they have to gain access and control over things that affect our society, to their own advantage that I think is dangerous. Not their wealth, in and of itself.