On Wed, 30 Mar 2011 16:55:31 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:
snip
I still think you are envious. What you want to see is a country
where no one is rich. Where everyone works hard and no one gets
ahead. The people will not rise up and overthrow the government as
long as they have opportunities.
===========
And here we have the root of the dilemma.

It is not by accident that Washington DC is increasingly
referred to as Versailles on the Potomac, and the gilded
enclaves of NYC frequently described as Versailles on the
Hudson.

It is not wealth per se, but rather the isolation,
insulation and general sense of exceptionalism /entitlement
[the rules don't apply to me] that extreme wealth far too
frequently causes that is the problem. It is also highly
dangerous to everyone concerned including the very wealthy,
as it distorts their view of reality and leads to such
stupid remarks as "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" [let them
eat cake].

A, perhaps the, foundational principal of American
government is "the consent of the governed," and it should
be obvious that when the governmental and business power
structures are largely isolated and insulated from
meaningful contact with the huge majority of people, and the
polls/surveys are spun/massaged to reflect elites
preconceptions and prejudices, there can be no consent.
Among the most critical items [in no particular order] are
"too big to fail" businesses, endless wars, continuing
deficits and unsustainable debt, deindustrialization/job
exports, and dependence on imported energy [oil].


-- Unka George (George McDuffee)
...............................
The past is a foreign country;
they do things differently there.
L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author.
The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).