Reply #35: It's the hourglass economy

[PurityOfEssence]

Actually, it looks a lot more like a short candlestick: very wide at the bottom, skinny in the middle, and a modest bulge at the top.

The untrammeled greed of the would-be aristocrats will destroy this country yet: if the many can't spend, the economy crashes. They may be happy and cocky in their gated communities, but the private security and damage-control costs will take 'em down a peg.

It's sad, really: it's bad enough that so many people have absolutely no concept of "enough", but it's demoralizing how many of them need to be demonstrably better off than the peons in order to feel good about themselves. It's not enough to be sated at the banquet of life, they need to drag in some toothless beggar to throw their bones at in glee.

Worst of all is that this greed is ennobled by our national psyche and enabled by many oddball strains of "religion". Yep, there are acres of diamonds out there, it's your duty to rake 'em up.