Ted Rall for February 12, 2014
Transcript:
Why do the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? because capitalism encourages monopolies and concentrates wealth into fewer hands. (Man: I made my money the old-fashioned way: we bought our smartest competitors and shut them down.) Inequality isn' a flaw. It's a feature. The existence of poverty terrorizes workers into accepting low wages and motivates them to strive hard. (Woman: There but for the grace of-except, I'm a good person.) Still, too much inequality is bad. If shoppers are broke, the economy stalls. If the poor give up hope, they revolt. (Man 2: I dislike this scenario) Whenever inequality gets out of hand, the ruling class tweaks capitalism. They make the tax code more progressive. They enact social programs. (Barack Obama: Children are starving! Incremental change- stat!) After inequality returns to slightly less unequal levels, they restore regressive taxes and roll back the safety net. Best system ever. (Woman 2: So simple and straightforward. OMG the stock market is crashing again ACK!)
That’s what we have now in the US. The problem is, the compromise tends to get crushed by the greed imperative in capitalism.