tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28275022.post115678865527492616..comments2023-10-07T09:01:59.742-04:00Comments on The Jaundiced Eye: Working Harder -- Earning LessCurmudgettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00909592581165744084noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28275022.post-1156867671549950852006-08-29T12:07:00.000-04:002006-08-29T12:07:00.000-04:00The devolution of the United States to the status ...<B>The devolution of the United States to the status of a banana republic with nuclear weapons is probably inevitable.<BR/><BR/>The weight of history is against the country. The historical data clearly show that vast income inequity existed for most of American history. The relative equality that existed in the post-World War Two era was an anomaly, not the rule. <BR/><BR/>So now American society is merely reverting to its usual state of affairs. The social polarization that occurs in a society as gung-ho for "free market capitalism" as the US is inevitable. The only way to avoid this is to embrace a socialist model, and I don't see any political movement pushing for socialism in the US, absent another Great Depression.<BR/><BR/>Of course, in the long run, a democracy is untenable when you have a shrinking middle class and a growing concentration of wealth in the hands of very few people. The future of democracy, at least in the United States, is not a bright one.<BR/><BR/>Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis summed up the situation nicely when he wrote: "We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."</B>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com