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Wealth inequality stands at its highest since the turn of the 20th century - the so-called 'Gilded Age' - as the proportion of capital held by the world's 1,542 dollar billionaires swells yet higher. The report, undertaken by Swiss banking giant UBS and UK accounting company PwC, discusses the roles technology and globalization play in the status quo, and appears two weeks after the IMF recommended that the rich should pay more tax to address the enormous disparity.
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You are a fluke of the universe; you have no right to be here.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by jelizondo on Sunday October 29 2017, @03:15PM (2 children)
There is a TED talk [ted.com] from some rich guy saying the pitchforks are coming and urging fellow plutocrats to address inequality.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 29 2017, @03:22PM
You'd have to be a great fool not to see that coming. Before the bribery of politicians was so egregious there was at least some hope of politicians doing something about it, but now that the SCrOTUmS have decided that there's no such thing as bribery, I have no faith of any sort that there's going to be restraint applied without violence being involved.
Part of what keeps the lower classes from revolting is a sense that they can improve themselves and their position in society. Having things like vacations and luxuries removes a lot of the incentive to riot. But, if the fewer incentives people have to maintain the status quo, the less likely they are to maintain the status quo and if the only way that they're allowed to improve themselves is through murder and mayhem, it's asking a bit much to expect them to work themselves to death so some greedy bastards can just steal all the proceeds.
A huge chunk of Americans pay no federal income tax because they aren't being paid enough to. And an increasing number of taxes are being collected at the state and local level to make up for the tax breaks at the federal level that mostly go to the wealthiest.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @12:26AM
He also appeared in some websites https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014 [politico.com]
But probably they are so full of themselves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonomy [wikipedia.org] they will not pay attention.