As inequality soars, the nervous super rich are already planning their escapes

[Antonio the Sixth]

They can run, but they can't hide. They'll get theirs just like every other parasitic class has in the past.

How naively optimistic of you. If history teaches us something, it's that most parasites get away with their misdeeds and live happily ever after. A few chopped heads might make you feel better, but doesn't change the big picture.

[Antonio the Sixth]

They can run, but they can't hide. They'll get theirs just like every other parasitic class has in the past.

How naively optimistic of you. If history teaches us something, it's that most parasites get away with their misdeeds and live happily ever after. A few chopped heads might make you feel better, but doesn't change the big picture.

Last I checked feudalism is more or less nonexistent in 2015, as is slavery and other classical forms of exploitative class society, so I'd argue that history teaches us otherwise.

Most of the heirs of feudal lords and slaveowners are now part of the "capitalist class", you know? The system did change, but the people who benefited from it didn't suffer that heavily.

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Very true.

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This sounds like a quasi-religious belief in a return to the "promised land" or to some kind of heaven on earth, and it's the biggest issue I have with the radical left. No, we will never reach this utopian state you describe. What we can do is try and get closer and closer to it. And it's no small feat! It does make a big difference in making society fairer, it has done so in the past and it can still do so in the future.

[Antonio the Sixth]

The rich have always governed human society, since the first cavemen organized themselves. Pretty much, there will always be rich people. They will always have proximity to the levers of power, as opposed to the middle class and working class. That's how human nature was set up; if you have a beef with it, take it up with evolution and how our psychology works. We're not a species conditioned for economic egalitarianism in governing our society.

What's missing from this analysis is a number of things. Wealth is being increasingly made, not from inheritances, but from reaping the rewards of investment in the new fields - technology, green energy, and the like. I should point out that the innovators in these areas are the sorts of rich people we should be encouraging, rather than plundering their manors and burning them at the stake. About only a fifth of wealthy families succeed in staying rich past 3-4 generations, anyway. The Rockefellers and the Carnegies are vastly more rare than you think. Arguably, the rich people we're seeing today are more the Gateses, the Jobs, and the like. They're not old money, they're new money taking advantage of the new economy.

The standard of living - well, everyone on this board is probably among the top 10% in living standards in this world, if not 5%. Really, that's one way to measure wealth, and the United States and Europe have it in spades. Perhaps members of this board should start looking to avoid the pitchforks themselves, rather than dreaming about administering the pitchforks to the bodies of others. I imagine the people of Africa, Asia, and other nations have the same violent fantasies against you people as some of you do about the United States' 1%.

This is not to dismiss income inequality as a problem although I might have more tolerance for it than some of you. This is to dismiss the idea that violent economic revolution solves anything, and that most of the Americans and Europeans on this board are anything but well off relative to the vast majority of the globe.

The notion of everyone being materially equal and the idea of us violently killing and restricting the rich to feed the poor usually ends in miserable disaster and failure for all involved. You can try it again; but the economic literature of such an attempt has usually shown that the "populists" become even worse than the formerly powerful "economic royalists," when handed political power.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I think a little defending of the rich and powerful is a perfectly reasonable response.

Because if anyone needs defending, it's the rich and powerful. Sound logic there!

That's Cassius for you.