We are living in a "Plutocracy". Read on...

I have historically been loath to advocate taxation and punishing the rich. In fact, I have self-identified as a fiscal conservative since I before I understood what that meant.

Those days are no longer.

In October 2005, Citibank issued a paper on the U.S. being a "Plutonomy" a spin on the word Plutocracy, a government or country governed or ruled by the wealthy.

This paper by Citibank discusses it thoroughly but let me pull a few pearls out for your consideration:

"We project the plutonomies (the U.S. U.K. and Canada) will likely see even more income inequality..."

"In a plutonomy there is no such thing as "the U.S. Consumer"....There are rich consumers, few in number, but disproportionate in teh gigantic slice of income and consumption they take"

"...we think the plutonomy is here, is going to get stronger..."

"Plutonomies exist and explain much of the world's imbalances"

"the rich are getting richer and they dominate spending"

Do NOT miss the section on the possible ways the people might "backlash".

Part 2

"the rich take an increasing share of the income and wealth over the last 20 years, to the extent that the rich now dominate income, wealth, and spending in these countries".

In conclusion:

"..The rising wealth gap between the rich and poor will probably at some point lead to a political backlash. Whilst the rich are getting a greater share of the wealth, and the poor a lesser share, political enfranchisement remains as it was - one person - one vote (in the plutonomies). At some point it is likely that labor will fight back against the rising profit share of the rich and there will be a political backlash against the rising wealth of the rich. This could be felt through higher taxation (on the rich or indirectly through higher corporate taxes/regulation) or through trying to protect indigenous laborers, in a push-back on globalization - either anti-immigration, or protectionism. We don't see this happening yet, although there are signs of rising political tensions...."

I never thought of myself as an "indigenous laborer" before. Good to know....