|
Your observation that the middle class is disappearing is accurate. Elizabeth Warren gave an excellent talk on this that I found very interesting.
But, corrupt and evil minded people exist across all cohorts at a fairly even distribution.
People tend to move away from what they hate. So if a country increasingly hates the rich, as is the trend now, it will lead to poverty. This is a sad reality.
It is popular in today's society to romanticize being poor as virtuous and noble, and being rich as evil. This seems counter-intuitive to me as wealth and higher standard of living go hand in hand; and I'd rather have a higher standard of living than a lower one.
The basis of capitalism is trading value for value. Unfortunately there are many things that people associate with capitalism that are not really capitalism. The only weakness of capitalism that I am aware of is that capital tends to concentrate and that can lead to making it harder for other people to effectively compete. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any better system.
It is difficult to find anyone who would disagree that trading value for value is immoral.
The reason I think many are against capitalism is because they see huge corporations getting rich at the expense of the American taxpayer. Is this trading value for value though? No.
The term for corporations using their influence to create unfair advantages for themselves through legislation and regulation is corporatism. This is especially pronounced in the telcom, food manufacture, and banking sectors. I think that is what most people who say "The rich are evil" mean.
There are also others that are simply jealous or envious.
You can't be sick enough to make another person healthy.
You can't be sad enough to make another person happy.
You can't hate enough to make another person loved.
You can't be poor enough to make another person rich.
True wealth comes from the efforts of our hands and minds, amplified by technology. Money is merely a means of exchange. It is not a store of wealth.
I see no rational reason to hate the rich. I do, however, hate the corrupt and parasites that increase their standard of living at the expense of others (cough wall street).
Also, to say there is no crisis or problem seems like a funny thing to say. Obviously the threshold of what a crisis is subjective to each individual but to stick your head in the sand and saying nothing is wrong doesn't mean that is the case. It also prevents you from identifying "quality of life detractors" and find ways to improve things; you can only improve something once you acknowledge the problem.
The biggest problem I see is that we have a run away banking/legal/political system that sucks the life out of the working class, and gives it to corrupt bankers, politicians, and their cronies.
|