Beware, fellow plutocrats, the pitchforks are coming

[detbuch]

Originally Posted by Pete F.

Term limits would be helpful, we have agreed on that before.
What can we do to make term limits a real political issue?
Could be a permanent thread

But back to the discussion
So if wealth concentration and the loss of the middle class are but symptoms of problems in our society, what is the root cause?
You can have more than one root cause to any problem and typically do in complex problems and a thing can be both a root cause of one problem and a symptom of another.

The largest, most powerful, centralized entity that siphons the most money from you and your community is the federal government. Perhaps we could start from there as a root cause for what, as you say, "is pretty evident if you look at most any town what has happened to our society." And if we fix that problem, we can begin to return to, as you say, "what our society was based on."

[Pete F.]

Originally Posted by detbuch

The largest, most powerful, centralized entity that siphons the most money from you and your community is the federal government. Perhaps we could start from there as a root cause for what, as you say, "is pretty evident if you look at most any town what has happened to our society." And if we fix that problem, we can begin to return to, as you say, "what our society was based on."

And how would eliminating large parts of the current federal government change any part of this example of how our retail markets have changed:
Amazon is a good example of what has happened and how wealth distribution has changed our society
30 years ago if I wanted a pair of pants or shoes, I would go to the store in town and buy them.
Assume I spent a hundred dollars
Of that $100 the money would go to the following places
The merchant would pay
$40 for the goods and that likely would go out of town
$40 for his building, taxes, fuel, electric, advertising and most of this would stay pretty local
$10 for his employees
and he would pay his loans and make a profit hopefully on the other $10
Of the $100 I spent probably 60% would remain in my area to be spent again and again.
Well some say, Amazon is cheaper, you save money
Assume it only costs me $80 for the same thing from Amazon
Of that $80 none stays in my area to be spent again and again
There are no local employees
The money doesn't get spent at my or my employers establishment.
The store no longer pays taxes

The $20 dollars I "saved" is the most costly money you can find.

That money is what funds our society, pays our neighbors, provides little league, makes local tackle shops work and is what our society was based on.