Why We Can't Ignore Growing Income Inequality

Timothy Noah of Slate.com spells it all out here.  He's right.  Who wants to live in a banana republic?  And, if that's the case, why do we live in one?

I think it boils down to this:  the American fantasy of getting rich quick is more appealing to most people than the hard work of building a just society.  We were at our best as a society when we valued hard work.  We don't value it anymore.  We send it overseas, move money around (turning it from capital to debt in the process), and pretend that we're creating value.  We're not.

The dirty little secret to so-called post-Reagan "prosperity" is the same main culprit behind our current crisis:  too much debt, both public and private.  And (sorry, righties) the private sector is the biggest, most egregious offender.  They're the ones digging the holes in all of our pockets.  Between tax cuts we can't afford, and leveraged deals that don't generate the income needed to pay for them, we've dug ourselves into a ditch we may never get out of (and certainly won't get out of if the GOP takes over Congress).

Want to get angry at someone, Tea Baggers?  Buy a mirror.  Look in it.  Repeat until sanity in the form of liberalism takes hold.