About the Rich Poor Gap

This issue is real, people. The problem is that in a democracy, when people get really fed up, they can vote for change. And if they see only the choice between "Capitalism" and "Socialism" and they are tired of getting screwed by what they (mistakenly) think is our present form of economics - Capitalism - they will vote for the people-killer, Socialism.

And the light of freedom in the US and around the globe will start to fade.


Here are some articles from a quick websearch:
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Christian Science Monitor:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0614/p01s03-usec.html

Rich-poor gap gaining attention
By Peter Grier | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
A remark by Greenspan symbolizes concern that wealth disparities may destabilize the economy.

WASHINGTON – The income gap between the rich and the rest of the US population has become so wide, and is growing so fast, that it might eventually threaten the stability of democratic capitalism itself.
Is that a liberal's talking point? Sure. But it's also a line from the recent public testimony of a champion of the free market: Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan...
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Worldwatch Institute – November 12, 2003 – 6:17pm

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/82

The global economy has grown sevenfold since 1950. Meanwhile, the disparity in per capita gross domestic product between the 20 richest and 20 poorest nations more than doubled between 1960 and 1995.

Of all high-income nations, the United States has the most unequal distribution of income, with over 30 percent of income in the hands of the richest 10 percentand only 1.8 percent going to the poorest 10 percent...

Source:

Rich-Poor Gap Growing, Vital Signs 2003, pp. 88-89.
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International Herald Tribune

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/18/news/letter.php

Letter From Washington: As U.S. rich-poor gap grows, so does public outcry
Albert R. Hunt Bloomberg News
Published: February 18, 2007

WASHINGTON: There is hand-wringing in America over growing income inequality and excessive executive compensation.

The complaints are not emanating from populists on the left or ivory- tower academics. The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, devoted an entire speech this month to income inequality, worrying that it threatened "the dynamism" of capitalism. And President George W. Bush has been a critic of greedy executives...