what the heck? the progressive / commie dream is equality of outcome in many areas ... or all but the ruling class.
Yeah... the ruling class wants all of the hoi polloi to be "equal" (tough shit if "equal = poverty"). That way, the rulers can tell everyone, "don't worry.... nobody has more than you". And we're all supposed to be happy/complacent in our "equality"?
No one believes equality of outcome is possible, or desirable. Though finding large differences in life outcomes may point to a problem with equality of initial conditions, so it's a fair starting point.
Precisely. Now suppose the ruling classes got there largely through inheritance of wealth, training, expectations, and connections.
Perhaps equity is a better word, since in our left-brain society equality appears to mean mathematical equality.
What if you were a woman with no accomplishments other than turning a blind eye while your husband victimized women? What if your plan was to ride his coattails all the way to the White House? Is this someone Ricter would support? Of course it is, Ricter is 'Ready for Hillary'.
There are an astonishingly high number of people who would feel like they were better off if everybody was in poverty, even if it was worse for them. For these people, if you have a Maserati and they have a Civic, they'd happily have the government seize both of them so neither of you had a car. To them, you losing your high end sports car is worth them losing their Civic. People are #@*&ing stooopid. Which explains a lot, actually.
That's human nature. See Social Comparison Theory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_comparison_theory I agree. A fifth generation Rockefeller was expecting to get a huge inheritance, but was disappointed to get $2 million. At this rate, a 7th generation Rockefeller would be lucky to be a thousandaire. The combination of inflation, taxes, competition, spending, dilution from extended family all serve to destroy concentrations of wealth. Inter-generational wealth is difficult to transmit. Most on the Forbes 400 are largely self-made, more so in the recent 20 years in our technologically disruptive economy. Lots of kids and grandparents end up doing drugs and squandering the family wealth. They lack motivation to succeed, and may feel they cannot measure up against what his father achieved, thus causing depression or feelings of inadequacy. Some are motivated, but not being that smart, end up losing their business to competition or the vagaries of the marketplace. A recent example I was reading about was the Busch family who only owned 4% of Budweiser (Anheuser-Busch) as of 2007. The fourth generation Busch ended up losing the family business to 3G Capital in the 2007 buyout. Busch the 4th was a rich playboy who did not have a great understanding of his business and the professional managers hired had failed to expand abroad, whereas the owners of 3G expanded a tiny brewery into a global powerhouse in 20 years large enough to swallow Budweiser. I have no doubt that succeeding generations of Busch will probably continue down the wealth ladder. Perhaps the 12th generation will be near upper middle class status.