[bsenftner]

> But eventually the market forces will do their thing.

After you're necessity for that market equalization is long gone.

We're in a situation where the wealth class can literally wait it out for more than a generation for market conditions they prefer to normalize. The Market is manipulated and owned, and not by us. The tipping point is past, and the majority of society has yet to realize, our only hope at this point probably requires violence and capital destruction, sadly.

[lunarhustler]

> We're in a situation where the wealth class can literally wait it out for more than a generation for market conditions they prefer to normalize.

It might be there are people who are able and willing to burn money for a long time. Sure as hell it doesn't stop me the startup founder to set whatever salary ranges I believe are efficient.

[eru]

Huh? What's your evidence for these kinds of claims?

And who is 'us' in that comment?

[bsenftner]

Anyone not within the circle of a family with generation spanning wealth.

[eru]

Not quite sure what you mean. Normal people in the western world are richer are better off than ever before. The same goes for people in South Korea or Singapore, countries which have recently joined the rich world.

Seems to be all going pretty well.

[danaris]

Two things can be true at the same time: both

"Normal people in the western world are better off than they were at any/nearly any given time in the past."

and

"There is a staggering amount of wealth inequality in the western world right now, and there are very concerning signs about what it is doing to our politics, economy, and culture."

[eru]

Global inequality has been going down at a tremendous rate over the last few decades. (Mostly by China and to a lesser extent India going from dirt poor to middle income.)

Not sure what you mean 'what it is doing to our politics, economy, and culture.'? All those are doing ok as far as I can tell. At least not worse than in the past.

[danaris]

Global inequality, yes.

I'm talking about inequality within the developed nations—specifically, the US (I believe it also affects the UK; I don't feel qualified to talk about such effects beyond that, due to lack of information).

As for what's happening with our politics...if you can't see that the current situation is wildly different than it was 40, 20, or even 10 years ago, then I'm sorry, but you have not been paying close attention. We have people proclaiming themselves as actual literal neo-Nazis storming the Capitol building in an attempted coup, in open collaboration with certain members of Congress and the wife of a sitting Supreme Court judge. And while some of the people involved in the Jan 6 coup attempt are, indeed, being convicted as they should be, to my knowledge, none of the politicians who are complicit have been publicly investigated. This is not normal, it is not healthy, and while it is not entirely due to the increasing wealth inequality, to claim that that has no part in the level of polarization today and the rise of extremism...well, it would be an extraordinary claim, and thus require extraordinary evidence to support it.

[wooger]

Better off how?

Can't afford to buy a house or start a family at anything like the rate 50 years ago that's for sure.

[eru]

The kind of low quality houses you could buy 50 years ago are (perhaps sadly?) outlawed today in most places.

You can always afford to start a family. The question is what trade-offs you want to make.

People used to do with less.