Plutocrats of the People - Why are America's superrich suddenly fretting about income inequality?

Income inequality, or "the wealth gap", actually MUST grow over time. It is absolutely unavoidable... unless the economy is in free-fall collapse.

Even if we ignore the fact that those in the top 20% tend to make better monetary decisions than the bottom 20%, it still holds true, as a mathematical certainty.

If a wealthy man makes a 10% return on his investments, and a poorer man increases his wealth/income/return by 20%, the wealthy man will still far out-pace the poorer one. Simply put, ten percent of one million will always be far more than twenty percent of one-hundred-thousand.

(And that's implying that someone worth 6-figures is "poor"... the gap widens even more when you use more realistic numbers!)

It isn't about justice or equality of outcomes (not that the US could or should ever try to complete the transition from Equal Opportunity to Equal Outcomes). It's simply a way for liberal democrats to keep screaming like children, no matter what the circumstances. In reality, they're decrying the fact that mathematics exists. Sadly, we as a nation are too stupid to figure it out... and that the only way to "fix" this "problem" is to destroy the economy in a ridiculous, massive and unproductive wealth re-distribution program... which is out-right Marxism... and likely Hillary's true goal. (Her college thesis was on Saul Alinsky, a radical Marxist activist whose philosophy was basically that the ends justfy the means, and that non-activists were useless.)

I have no ides of what you mean by "your America"

In "my America" my first ancestors arrived from Germany as indentured servants. They sold themselves to prosperous English settlers for 7 years of hard labor to earn passage to America.

Then within 10 years of earning the right to set up their own small livelihoods, they put everything on hold and walked back over the Allegheny mountains in Dec 1776 to join George Washington in New Jersey to fight for "my America"

For the next 150 years most of my ancestors spread manure over farmfields to grow food for "my America", with an occasional break to go back to a war fought for "my America". Of course, those who ate bread and meat mostly didn't realize the hard lonely farmer's contributions to "their America".

My mother was the first college grad in her line. She got a nursing degree and spent most of the 1950's changing bedpans for the sick and elderly of America. Held their hands when they died, too. Of course, this thankless work went on and she didn't like it, so instead of railing about the injustice of shift work spent cleaning up bedsores of those with "significant holdings" she got a second college degree and taught school.

Now at 82 my mother has "significant holdings", she eats out at a burger restaurant with her senior friends (retired nurses and teachers all) every Thursday and pays someone to deliver her food, and she also pays someone to clean her "significant holdings (her house and yard). That is "her "America"

I also am retired fro working since I was 15 and am one of those with "significant holdings"- I walk my dogs and eat when I please. Pick up the dog poop myself though, can't afford $75 a week for yard clean up by the "other America" nor can I afford $100-$150 for a 2-3 hour a week maid job by the "other America". Maybe when social security kicks in...

If one of my kids wants to earn his way through school by serving meals to people with "significant holdings" (as I did when I was younger)....and start his own small business picking up dog poop and then hiring employees to do it.... I say good for him. "his America" will be one where he makes his own choices and works for himself, not pulling a lever in some factory and expecting the union to get him $40 an hour for it.

sorry, the good old days are over. We are entering the information age. What Asian industry is doing was happening in the 1900's for us. We are beyond factories now. Of course we will have defense contractors and factories for national defence. What I'm saying is change is happening, the future is coming and the good old days are over. Welcome to the technological, information, service, skilled, educated economy. Sorry that a person without an education will find it harder to survive but if you want to help the middle class you should be advocating a more educated work force. That part is hard because of Teachers Union's and such but we need to have a more educated workforce.

How do you think the Industrial revolution came about. It can through change and a lot of pain for agrarian life. Change is good.

visions of torchlight and pitchforks and guillotines dancing in their heads

The rich are always worried about envy and how to deflect it. Many try to present the persona of the "good" rich, hence the limousine liberal. It's a strategy intended to head off envy so they can keep their wealth.

The poor in this country have cell phones, cars, big screen TVs, cable, computers, internet, and better health care than any multimillionaire had just 25 years ago. Most are fat. If that isn't enough for them they have the opportunity to move to a better town and work for a better life.

Envy is the driving force of America's enemies, both foreign and domestic. We need to start confronting this leftist threat for what it really is: an evil force out to destroy not just the rich for sport, but America itself.

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