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"The fourth force is the rise of Extreme Inequality. Even as the three forces listed above raise risks for most Americans, the very top of the wealth and income scale is pulling away at levels never before seen. Yet it's clear that many of the winners are reaping the rewards not of the "free market," but of clubby, manipulated schemes that are as likely to reward failure as success. Bankers who pocketed millions peddling subprime mortgages retire to their country clubs while the rest of us are left holding the bag. CEOs who preside over tumbling stock prices routinely walk away with tens of millions for their trouble; hedge fund managers who barely beat the S&P commonly earn such princely sums in a year. At what point does the ubiquity of the undeserving rich become so corrosive in a democracy that it sparks a backlash that wrongly discredits capitalism altogether?"
Here's the thing... There is the general tendency (in all people, all the time) to make choices based on dogma even in the face of overwhelming facts that contradict that approach. Most of the time, in everyday matter, those choices are correct. But these days, the dogma gets heavily distorted and exaggerated by other motivations (like gaining more seats in congress for your party - no matter what).
This tendency isn't at all new, but these days the facts are really piling up. And yet you still can't get many people to understand that, "look, it's not working!"
I don't think change will come. People, ordinary people, will stand int the way, contrary to their own best interests, just because Rush Limbaugh says so, and continues to profit by saying so (it's his job). Ordinary people will continue to shovel wealth at a smaller and smaller elite class, at their own expense.
What this makes me think of is the French Revolution.
In modern America, the system has even ordinary working people saying let 'them' eat cake.
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