I have been saying that we need to at least examine whether or not the increasing income disparity has something to do with the bottom falling out of the culture. Seems like it is not the rich who are exploding in numbers, but the poor who are losing touch with the skills and chararcter needed to hold a steady job.
IMO, we betrayed the lower income people, when we moved manufacturing overseas. You don’t put your neighbor out of work and expect them to support a system that has betrayed them.
It has been my take that I would rather spend a bit more for my goods, than see my neighbor’s salary cut in half or more.
We were running upwards of $700 to $800 billion dollars in deficits with China before the crash. We forfeited the multiplier effect on that sum of money in our nation each year.
We’re talking about $2 to $3.5 trillion dollars more circulating in our economy, not China’s.
That sure worked out swell.