what's fairness got to do with it?

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(clicky)wealth distribution in America today
stick a fork in it- America's done.

if only the working class would collectively wake up and realize that the game is rigged against them.

As I understand it, the gap between the richest and poorest folks is the greatest it has ever been in history by several orders of magnitude. It also seems to be increasing, with fewer and fewer people in the middle. Now some people might see that as cause for celebration, especially if they are in that tiny fraction of one percent doing so well, or if they have such aspirations. To me though, such egregious disparity seems ridiculous, unhealthy and unsustainable.

some people only are capable of understanding "all for me and screw everybody else!"

To me such an attitude just shows they are ignorant of the interconnectedness of everyone and everything. How one defines "self" is key. If we're talking a limited ego trapped inside a bag of skin that is separate from a universe that does not give a damn and must be beaten into submission by one's intellect in order for us to survive, that is one way of looking at it that sometimes leads to the utter lack of compassion for others. But even if one has that "bag of skin being separate" mentality, some folks can still relate to others and feel compassion while some apparently either can't or choose not to.

a disturbing number of the HFAs on this site seem to be totally hostile to the very idea of compassion.

I see the situation, but I do not see a solution.

It's easy to point fingers and lay blame; but what are YOU going to do about it?

what do YOU do about it?

I take in homeless people and help them get back on their feet. I also volunteer at a local soup-kitchen/mission. Sometimes, I'll even walk up to a panhandler and invite him/her to lunch. Today, I was the only person at my church to talk to a poorly-dressed couple from the neighborhood and ask them what they were looking for (their answer was "No pre-judgment", btw).

Again, what solutions do YOU offer?

you are better than me, I will admit. I can offer nothing to anybody. I am ineffectual. you are brave to take in strangers in your house. the poorly dressed couple was probably girding for a lecture which you didn't give them thus throwing them off-guard.

I think there's a bit of a category error going on here: Surely aiding the less fortunate is a tacit endorsement of an unequal system, rather than a challenge to it?

That's not to belittle the work that fnord and others like him/her do, I just don't see it addressing the root of the problem.

The solution is 90% tax bracket for income over $10 million/year.

Nobody needs a billion dollars FOR ANYTHING.

[redacted]*






*I didn't have anything good to say.

Last edited by GoonSquad on 04 Nov 2013, 2:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

^^ Hey there GoonSquad, that's not like you to come across so skeptical!

I have to agree with you about no-one needing a billion dollars though. If just a few of the billionaires would share their wealth with the less fortunate it would be great. But how would one ensure it was done fairly and equitably?

Guess what, life isn't fair. Never has been never will be. Get used to it.

Is it fair? Of course not.

But the other point to remember is that it is not sustainable, either. This is a new Gilded Age, and it will end, just as the last one did. Hopefully it will not take a World War to accomplish it, but end it shall.

The thrall that money holds over politics can only be displaced by one thing: the electorate. No amount of advertising can save you if the electorate no longer feel that you can act in their best interests. You want to temper the unfairness, then get people out to the ballot box.