Speaking of outer space, has anyone seen the L-Curve of wealth concentration in the US - and I imagine it would be even more exaggerated for the world as a whole - and this chart refers to incomes, not actual wealth as of 2003. As I understand it, wealth has continued to concentrate since then:
http://www.lcurve.org/images/LCurveFlier2003.pdf
So, from the stats of that time, if you stacked up the median income of the US population, $40,000, on the 50 yard line of a football field representing the income distributions in the US from the lowest at one goal line (0 yard line, presumably $0) to the highest (at the 100 yard line - Bill Gates), the median income $40,000 as a stack of $100 bills would be about 1.6 inches high, sitting on the 50. Those with income at the 95 percentile earning $100,000 would have a stack of hundreds about 4" high. At the 99th percentile, $300K, the stack would be about a foot high. According to the write-up, Bill Gates income would be a stack of hundreds about 30 miles high, at the upper end of the statospere, and tens of thousands of feet above where Felix Baumgartner stepped off of the balloon gondola for his joy ride the other day.
When I was working on the documentary on corruption a few years ago, I made a 3D model in Excel of wealth concentration in the US, and it was an eye opener. If you create a 10 x 10 matrix of wealth by percentiles in the US, you have an extremely flat area like the Great Plains for almost the whole area, except for a giant Mount Everest with exponentially rocketing foothills the very last few squares in the corner near the 100th percentile square.
I agree with Chris' basic position, and the basic information, that taxing alone is absolutely not a solution in itself to the major problems we face – it can’t raise close to the funds needed for the current budget commitments - and it absolutely can be part of a syndrome of "taxing someone else" instead of setting priorities and making the real reorganizations, cuts, and improvements to efficiencies where they need to be made. But, like JBarney, I also cringe at the overdone anti-tax currents on this thread and this site. Additional taxes and fairer distribution of the world's vast wealth are part of any budget balancing that includes any kind of social safety net in the US. And IMO, capitalism absolutely doesn't work without providing some safety net and fairness, as we saw in the 1930's. To the extent we’re all uncomfortable with “class war”, revolution, taxation and redistribution of wealth, we might as well prepare to be uneasy for awhile, because stark differences in wealth and welfare of people is absolutely part of the problem right now everywhere, and it’s worth not forgetting that – beyond all the distracting talk about eternal “freeloaders” which IMO is in part, an avoidance.
A lot of the wealthy are freeloaders, too. I’m sorry, though they may all be great guys, I don’t have that much respect for a system that delivers outrageous billions to Bill Gates, Warren Buffet or George Soros and gives them control over so much of the planet’s resources, let alone Donald Trump. They don’t need it. I don’t need it, either – someone else does. So, how do we change that? As Chris discussed before, one model to look at is the Swedish approach of a mix of free market, higher taxation and higher general welfare - gov't balanced against free markets. Like many here, I tend to believe it’s likely the larger system is too ossified, corrupt and in denial to change in time and become more fair and principled, either by evolution or revolution. So, in reality, we are more likely to be left to our own devices and organizing in more localized communities.
I’m not a particularly religious person, but apparently Matthew was a good dude with a nice quote in the Christian Bible that pertains to this thread and this problem at all levels:
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
As times get tougher, doesn't it seem our heart needs to be with our larger community as many have said, on whatever level we can make that work, and that that’s the only place to lay up treasures in the end and find a bit of heaven?
How about "the return of principles" instead of "the return of principal"? Are both possible? If not, and we're bound to all be "general partners" with 100% at risk, like it or not, is there a way at this point to do it happily with other people?