Marginal Christianity

http://www.salon.com/2014/05/13/robert_reich_10_ways_to_close_the_inequality_gap_partner/ The former secretary of labor on American society's single greatest obstacle -- and what we can do about it TOPICS:   ROBERTREICH.ORG ,   INEQUALITY ,   INCOME INEQUALITY ,   BUSINESS NEWS ,   POLITICS NEWS Robert Reich This originally appeared on  Robert Reich's blog . Some inequality of income and wealth is inevitable, if not necessary. If an economy is to function well, people need incentives to work hard and innovate. The pertinent question is not whether income and wealth inequality is good or bad. It is at what point do these inequalities become so great as to pose a serious threat to our economy, our ideal of equal opportunity and our democracy. We are near or have already reached that tipping point. As French economist Thomas Piketty shows beyond doubt in his “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” we are heading back to levels of inequality not s...

One of the worst epithets that can be leveled at a politician these days is to call him a “redistributionist.” Yet 2013 marked one of the biggest redistributions in recent American history. It was a redistribution upward, from average working people to the owners of America. The stock market ended 2013 at an all-time high — giving stockholders their biggest annual gain in almost two decades. Most Americans didn’t share in those gains, however, because most people haven’t been able to save enough to invest in the stock market. More than  two-thirds  of Americans live from paycheck to paycheck. Even if you include the value of IRAs , most shares of stock are owned by the very wealthy. The richest 1 percent of Americans owns  35 percent  of the value of American-owned shares. The richest 10 percent owns over  80 percent . So in the bull market of 2013, America’s rich hit the jackpot...