When the Rich Have 85% of America's Wealth, ‘Equality of Opportunity’ Can’t Exist

[Leonard]

With income inequality constantly widening it means that the USA can no longer be considered a democracy because most of the people have no influence on policy.

The wealthy make their money on usury and other "unearned" activities like rent and speculation. This kind of income is taxed at rates as low as 15% while people who have to WORK for their money face double that rate not including the payroll tax and state and local income taxes.

Republicans are bad enough without the Democrats trying to be worse as the latest meaningless regulatory changes to the already weak regulatory powers over finance proves.

Two Quotes From Economist and Nobel Prize winner Dr. Joseph Stiglitz.

“The United States is not only the country with the most inequality in outcomes, it’s the country with the least equality of opportunity” .

“A kid’s life prospects are more dependent on the education and income of his parents than in any other advanced industrial countries.”

[TennisMom]

As long as middle-class people believe that the majority of the federal budget is spent on Welfare programs for minorities, there will be no focus on how the Wealthy are going from the Have-mores to the Have-it-alls.

At the same time middle-class people berate Welfare recipients as the cause of all our country's ills, they rise up like startled scorpions if you tell them that the mortgage-interest deduction is a middle-class entitlement program which costs the government millions of dollars.

There's that old saying about how a country gets the government it deserves. As we move further into the twenty-first century, that saying becomes more and more ominous.