Reply #19: Add to that the fact that we do not have a "free market" [View All]

A free market is one where all parties are "free:"

to organize for the purpose of making money (labor) or providing goods and services, and where the individual has the freedom to choose from more than one source, and the freedom to collect damages if one is sold a bad product or is otherwise harmed by another's careless attempt to make $$$$$

We presently have a black market going on. Most cheap goods are made by slave labor, are often improperly labeled to seem like US made goods; high prices in many areas are artificially fixed and protected by the government( fuel and meds, for example); there is little recourse if the drugs kill you or the banker sells your personal info to his bookie.

My take on the inequality: people are lazy. Corporate CEOs are too lazy to use their assets to make life better for anyone else, the government is too lazy and corrupt to put any checks on corporations, and the average American wants a Big Daddy who will powder his ass for him, think for him, tell him who to hate and then disappear so he can watch NASCAR and scratch his ass.