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from the picthfork-futures-accelerate-to-new-highs dept.
Nick Hanauer, a self-described "plutocrat" says history shows that the current economic and governmental situation can't last, and the USA should should get busy changing before the system breaks down.
From the memo to his "Fellow Zillionaires":
I founded aQuantive, an Internet advertising company that was sold to Microsoft in 2007 for $6.4 billion. In cash. My friends and I own a bank. I tell you all this to demonstrate that in many ways I'm no different from you. Like you, I have a broad perspective on business and capitalism. And also like you, I have been rewarded obscenely for my success, with a life that the other 99.99 percent of Americans can't even imagine.
But let's speak frankly to each other. I'm not the smartest guy you've ever met, or the hardest-working. I was a mediocre student. I'm not technical at all - I can't write a word of code. What sets me apart, I think, is a tolerance for risk and an intuition about what will happen in the future.
If we don't do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn't eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It's not if, it's when.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by GlennC on Thursday July 03 2014, @01:39PM
I read the article as well. As I read through the replies, it seems to me that there are two divergent views.
The view from those who agree with the article seems to be that money is a form of wealth, and that while there should be no ceiling on wealth accumulation, in a just society there should be a floor. Their view of wealth can be summarized as, "As it flows, wealth grows."
Those who disagree seem to view money as a method of "keeping score." Their view appears to be that they win when they have more than others, and that they want to keep and gather as much as possible while depriving others of the opportunity to do the same. This view can be summarized as, "I got mine, screw you."
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.