Monday, July 28, 2014

Except for the dachas, the special hard currency stores, the limousines and designer clothing

The power of intellectual fashion is on display at Deutsche Welle;
['Income inequality'] was also not much of a problem in Communist nations such as Russia and China because there was relatively little wealth to begin with. Elites may have lived better but they were constrained by the relative poverty of their countries. Since the new age of globalization began in 1989, China and Russia have become much richer, which increases the opportunities for cronyism and theft by elites.
Most Russians in Moscow lived in communal apartments while top Communist Party officials had luxury apartments confiscated from the Tsarist era aristocracy. They also had special stores only they could shop in, special restaurants, cars with special lanes reserved for them. And (small favor), they had the power of life and death over 'the people' who displeased them.

In Mao's China most people lived in the countryside in hovels shared with their livestock...if they were lucky enough to have livestock. Again, not Communist Party officials.

While, in the West, the people had ready access to McDonald's, Sizzler Steakhouses, K-Mart, Sears, JC Penney, and Kroger. Things beyond the wildest imaginings of the proletariat in Communist countries.

The situation in the US is exacerbated by bank and auto bailouts, other forms of government favoritism, and an opaque and complex tax system. The causes of income inequality in China, Russia and the US are different but the result is the same. China has greater income inequality than the US, but both countries are approaching the point where income inequality is so extreme that it threatens to cause social disorder.
Proof of that assertion being what? Was the social disorder instigated in the 1960s/70s by Barack Obama's neighbors Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn  caused by income inequality--Ayers father was easily one of the 1%.

Don't let a little thing like reality get in the way of your religious belief, DW.

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