Reply #52: I don't know where you get the idea that the bottom 50% is better off than ever

[Time for change]

If that's based on the population explosion, I point out that there can often be a big difference between quantity and quality of life. An expanding pie does not necessarily mean that those at the bottom have any expansion at all. With nearly a billion in poverty today, it's hard to fathom that it was worse in earlier days as a general rule.

In any event, our world is rapidly reaching the point where it cannot tolerate much more expansion in our numbers. The population explosion, in other words, is nearing the point where it will cause massive catastrophe. The wealthy may be able to avoid personal catastrophe when that happens, through their extra-ordinary access.

I agree with you that it is unregulated corporations that are the problem, rather than corporations per se. But our country and our world have in recent years and decades, largely due to lobbying of those very corporations, accepted a philosophy that says the less regulation the better. That portends a very ominous future for us if it's not corrected.