[twelvechairs]

Its not the 'gap' or the 'upper end' which is important in itself though. Its the lower end - whether someone here has a reasonable life and ability to reach their potential. One way of raising this lower end is to redistribute from the rich which takes away very little of their potential for the above

[vixen99]

It's a way but a lousy one. How can any system which depends on a flow of wealth from the efforts of A to support B, work in the long term? Ultimately people have to stand on their own feet.

The benefit system in Britain demonstrates this very well. About 20 million families receive some kind of benefit (64% of all families), about 8.7 million of them pensioners. For nearly 10 million families, benefits make up more than half of their income (30% of all families), around 5.3 million of them pensioners. Isn't it much the same in the US? Is this really the way forward? It’s certainly got impetus because Peter will always vote for Paul to pay more in tax when it benefits Peter. A drastic rethink of the whole way we organize ourselves is needed. We need to get smart and focus on how to stem the natural condition for most people - which is poverty - as history tells us. Only in the last few years has this trend been reversed to a great degree. Global capitalism is lifting people out of poverty at the fastest rate in human history because people are increasingly being enabled to dig their own way out of misery.