Predictions for 2011 - Divide between rich and poor will increase

It hard to believe what can be accomplished in a great country like the USA; you can become wealthy and enjoy the fruits of your labors. But one thing seems to be missing and the thought occurred to me while walking home from campus. How wonderful that you own a house or apartment house, but does that not include responsibilities as well? And one such responsibility would be to shovel your sidewalk clear of snow. In a similar manner you may well ask what are the responsibilities that come with great wealth? In the past 30 years, and especially in the last decade, the gap between the richest and poorest has grown ever wider, and yet the political policies that not only allow this, but promote this, are arguably supported by the majority of citizens because they vote for politicians who have produced this inequity of wealth while at the same time placing more and more of the citizenry, nearly the majority, into the poor category. Why vote for people who continue to hose you? It would seem that social issues provide the glue that binds and blinds people to economic policies that do not help them at all. And as Sam Harris points out so well, the rich have never had it better. If Reagan trickle down economics were going to work, by this time you would certainly know it. All the data indicate this is a falsified economic hypothesis, and yet still the cry is "tax cuts, tax cuts". For a very small % of our citizens, 2011 will be a very good year. So until more people figure this out, there will be more of the same.