On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 11:48 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan <che...@gmail.com> wrote: > In light of the Occupy Wall Street protests and popular concern around the > 1%, I point you to this remarkably cogent voice of concern from a decade > ago. > > It's a long read, but persist and it will leave you in no doubt about the > real state of affairs. > > http://www.pkarchive.org/economy/ForRicher.html > > New York Times, Magazine, October 20, 2002
Given the length and rather intimidatingly dense formatting (unintentional I assure you), I don't know if anyone read it, or there may have been follow on comments. Anyway, the global trend is certainly to push more of the population to near the bread line as possible. Unlike the Mercantalist economies of past, this isn't to create a vast work force on the cheap, but rather to only allow the best to be employed, while axing the welfare state at its knees. Just as unionization was helped on its way out of the factory floor by sell out labor leaders, we see Thatcherism redux in American politics. Bob Frank's Darwin economy is a recent stab at the problem, but I prefer PK's take. http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2011/09/libertarians_with_antlers.html Bob Frank, IMVHO manages to define the problem, but I don't like the solution. There are many social sciences and psychological case studies showing that it's impossible for a select few to be happy in a widely unhappy environment. Cheeni
