scrumpyjack wrote:Even the Labour party at one point tried to move to Lootman's attitude, when Peter Mandelson said in a speech in the US that he 'is intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich'.
I probably said this months ago up-thread, but the really insidious thing about this focus on inequality is how it changes the target of the debate.
It used to be that the redistributionists focused on poverty. And fine, if you care about poverty then focus on the poor. You can give to charities supporting them, volunteer your time, read The Guardian, vote Labour and all that. So far, so good.
But suddenly by relentlessly repeating the bogeyword "inequality", there is a subtle shift in the debate. Now the problem is not the poor, but rather the rich. The theory they want us to buy is that the reason people are poor is because of Bezos, Gates, Zuckerburg etc.
No mind that those individuals have generated billions in wealth and countless jobs for millions of people. No, they are the cause of every evil in the world. If only we could eradicate wealth then there would be no poverty. Or something.
It is a particularly snide change of emphasis in order to create division and class conflict.