Can You Believe that?

       A little while ago, I mentioned the inequality of wealth and opportunity in America. That Canada and much of Europe was passing us out. The scary part of that report is that some of the countries where people fled from to come to America for a chance to succeed are looking more and more like the countries we should consider returning to in order succeed, because it ain't in America any more.
       That's not to say that you can't be successful in America, but it does mean that you're less likely to have it happen here than in these other countries. And some of the statistics blow my mind. Did you know that the wealthiest 1% of Americans own assets worth more than that of the bottom 90% of Americans? How about this one, the six Walmart heirs are worth more than the bottom 41%. Walmart! The folks who can't afford to pay their employees a living wage. But in fairness to those six heirs, they do teach those employees how to apply for government assistance.
       So what we're saying is that six people own more wealth than 155,800,000 people in America. That comes to 1 Walmart owner to every 25,970,000 people. I think they call that income inequality. But it's the opportunity inequality that's really hurting America. If you're poor or even middle class, the likelihood that you can succeed in America is much lower than in many other industrialized nations. How is it that we became also-rans? We can't even lay claim to the education superiority we used to have, anymore. As I've said before, the only statistic we can claim to be winning at is that we have more poor people than other industrialized countries.
       So, what should we do about this? Well, if you ask one of those Walmart heirs, they'll tell you to just get another part time job or two and quit whining. If you ask one of those 41%, you might hear something about redistribution of wealth. To be honest, neither way will help much. Creating an atmosphere where education is paramount and affordable would help, but we need changes to our immigration policies that make it possible that foreign entrepreneurs have a chance to come here and stay. We need to start electing people who actually have a desire to get important things done without digging in and demanding ideological correctness. Fat chance on that.