[quote=dumbrenter]when 90% of the population thinks nothing of exchanging their hard earned paycheck for a gadget of questionable value AND with the knowledge that they are paying for a 40+% profit margin, is it any wonder that the top 1% will soon have most of the wealth?[/quote]
Exactly. Not only the customers, but the employees who barely make enough to get by so that upper-level management and shareholders can get a bigger cut of the value the *workers* create. Those who make the most are the ones who control who the winners are — the ones who control where capital flows. “Hard work” has very little to do with it.
This is one of the main reasons that wealth is driven up in the absence of an intervening force (like govt); that, and the fact that it’s much easier to make $1MM/year when you already have $100MM vs. having to work for that $1MM…and don’t even get me started on the fact that these incomes are taxed at different rates.
