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Comment by village-idiot | Hacker News Reader

I’m worried that this is starting to get to destabilizing levels of inequality.

I agree. It seems that much of society is running on fumes and that there is this persistent narrative that if you just try harder and work more hours while doing these 5 self-help steps that somehow that will lead to wealth. Part of my background was in evaluating credit risk of millions of loan applicants and it was very concerning to see the state of economic stability in the country.

If I’d had that job, I probably would’ve ended up buying a mountain cabin stuffed with MRIs and guns. Dunno how you could look at all that stuff and not basically say “welp, we’re fucked”.

Do you mean MREs? Or an actual cabin full of million dollar medical equipment

While that is actually quite a hilarious image, I did indeed mean MREs.

That's a relief. That MRI would have been worthless once your helium supply ran out.

And in my hands, before the helium ran out too.

With the MRIs you could start a potentially successful Dr. practice and perhaps not have to worry about the licensing because of the upheaval. JK I know you probably meant MREs. Yes, I just hope that eventually the narratives shift towards recognizing and dealing with these types of issues. My outdoors skills could use some serious improvement.

Like today's average worker's kids actually get the same shot at college than their boss' counterparts.

See also https://twitter.com/simongerman600/status/102716377897728000... which was recently mentionned on HN

Yup.

It’s obvious that some level of inequality is tolerable, all stable countries today handle a certain amount of it. I wonder what’s the point of inequality where democracy, or maybe even society itself, just falls apart?

You probably won't have to wonder for long. Just continue to observe the USA.

One thing that helps is that the super-rich live separate lives then the poor so it isn't thrown in your face. The super rich in their enclaves can enjoy their fancy cars, food, etc while the poor don't have to see all that excess. The poor don't even know that type of excess exists except for a glimmer on tv occasionally.

Seriously? A glimmer? TV is a wasteland of shows glorifying the lives of the wealthy. There's even an entire genre of reality TV called "Real Housewives of...". Or, you know, the Kardashians, who literally multiplied their net worth by filming a TV show about their wealthy, drama filled lives...

But are those really a reflection of how - say - Bezos or some oil rich prince actually live? I doubt it.

I expect it is actually mostly banal despite the staggering level of resources they and theirs casually consume.

It's well beyond that already. There is just a lag between the condition and its effect. But if you look at American politics, it seems we might be in the midst of the destabilization process.

I live there, so I’m not super thrilled about this social experiment.

I think we may already be past that point. Within the past few years we’ve had Brexit, Donald Trump, and a series of populist candidates winning throughout Europe.

For the sake of keeping things civil, I’ll refrain from stating my opinions on whether these are good or bad events, but these elections indicate that people want big changes. The Western world as a whole seems desperate for a radical reworking of the way we do things.

Whether the new system will be better or worse is anyone’s guess. We live in interesting times.

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