by Charles Hugh Smith
Of Two Minds
The bill for extreme wealth/income inequality is now overdue, and the penalties for ignoring the bill will be as extreme as the inequality.
Our socio-economic-political system–let’s call it the status quo–has been hollowed out by extremes of wealth/power inequality driven by financialization and globalization, which have enriched the top 5% and left everyone else behind.
As a result, the status quo has become increasingly fragile and brittle even as cheerleaders claim everything’s never been better–witness today’s massive rally in stocks on a jobs report which suggests the V-shaped recovery is already well underway.
The fly in the ointment is even a V-shaped recovery won’t repair the structural distortions which have generated levels of social stratification that are inherently destabilizing.
One way to understand this is: the bill for extreme wealth/income inequality is now overdue, and the penalties for ignoring the bill will be as extreme as the inequality.