In Health Bill, Obama Attacks Wealth Inequality By DAVID LEONHARDT Published: March 23, 2010 For all the political and economic uncertainties about health reform, at least one thing seems clear: The bill that President Obama signed on Tuesday is the federal governmentâs biggest attack on economic inequality since inequality began rising more than three decades ago. Over most of that period, government policy and market forces have been moving in the same direction, both increasing inequality. The pretax incomes of the wealthy have soared since the late 1970s, while their tax rates have fallen more than rates for the middle class and poor. Nearly every major aspect of the health bill pushes in the other direction. This fact helps explain why Mr. Obama was willing to spend so much political capital on the issue, even though it did not appear to be his top priority as a presidential candidate. Beyond the health reformâs effect on the medical system, it is the centerpiece of his deliberate effort to end what historians have called the age of Reagan. Continued... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/business/24leonhardt.html
It is not wealth inequality that is the real problem, the problem is the way in which the wealthy buy/and or unduly influence the pols to rig the system in favor of the wealthy that needs to be vanquished... If the wealthy genuinely paid their fair share, there would be no need to attack the system...
Did you happen to see this article? I posted it some time ago. http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/02/21/its_money_that_matters/?page=full
Do you have any idea at all what separates the poor from a bloody revolution against the wealthy? Any idea at all? Answer below: A healthy middle class...
I like that idea, but let me give you my "three legs for an obedient working class"... 1) The belief that hard work and a perhaps a tiny bit of luck will in fact propel you into a higher class. 2) The hope that if hard work is not enough, then maybe there will be a lot of luck, ie. "maybe I'll win the lottery." 3) If hard work and luck are not producing results now, at least I've got the invisible hand and trickle down helping me. Class mobility studies are undermining the truth of #1. Only pure desperation sustains #2. #3 has really taken a beating during this financial crisis. These, imho, are what are behind the teabaggers' misdirected rage.
The illusionist Ronald Reagan really changed the equation, as the sheeple bought into his nonsense that government was to blame for all of the problems, as the ruling class behind the curtain robbed the working class blind...
Imho, to the extent that government and the power elite are becoming the same thing, thanks to the revolving door, he was right.