[gaius]

Not really. Here in the UK "the poor" have satellite TV, free healthcare, smoke 40 cigarettes a day, and pay someone else to cook their food.

What does it matter that "the rich" go to the opera and smoke cigars and eat at fancy restaurants instead of the kebab shop? How does any of the latter take anything away from the former?

[loewenskind]

We were talking in the context of the US where this is absolutely not the case. In the UK the wealth inequality would be less of a big deal than in the US precisely because the UK takes better care of it's poor (with the unfortunate abuse that comes with that).

pg's comments about wealth are correct: me going out and creating something that makes me a billion dollars doesn't take anything away from anyone. But this is provided I'm a one man show and have no team. As soon as it's not "me" but a company, then me having enormous compensation very much does take away from others. The more money I take out of the pot, the less there is for workers, new positions, etc. It wasn't so long ago that top CEO's were making 70k/yr. :)