>>>I see nothing wrong with the picture above. This is capitalism. If I am lazy reading UT messages instead of working hard, learning new technologies, investing my time and money, do I deserve the same wealth as someone who does? <g>
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>Are you describing Paris Hilton? If 85% of wealth is already controlled by 20% then there's a huge component that is inherited, often by spoiled generations who have no intention or even ability to earn their own living. In addition, capital gains are affected by market demand rather than the prowess of the owner. Gains occur simply because the asset exists, not because you work hard and learn new technologies. As wealth concentration progresses and it becomes less and less likely that somebody in the poorer 80% can get hold of enough assets to move into the privileged 20%, things will turn bad. And all of this ignores the $42T Medicare hole that couldn't care less how the deck chairs on the Titanic get rearranged once the iceberg can't be ignored any more.

There is nothing that a flat tax could not fix <g>. The bottom line, as far as I am concerned, creating class warfair by taxing some more than others (in the name of "fairness") is not going to solve the problem.