Born on Third Base: What the Forbes 400 Really Says About Economic Equality & Opportunity in America

[Octafish]

3. My nice neighbor thinks the latter.

She's pretty much worked two or more jobs her entire adult life to put her kids through college after her first husband died. Born and raised in the old Greektown neighborhood of Detroit, she doesn't complain much, as her mom worked three jobs on her behalf.

The thing she sees today is hopelessness for the majority of Americans -- somewhere north of 47 and south of 99. There are no good jobs for college grads, let alone high school grads, anywhere around here - a suburb. Drop-outs can forget about it, like the rest of the permanently poor. She says a revolution is coming.

When I was a kid, it was normal to consider government part of the solution. As you wrote, Ikonoklast, progressive taxation made ours a civilized society where people had a chance. Today's game is slanted entirely toward the rich, a case of welfare for the wealthy, institutionalized by those in government today.