/biz/ - Business & Finance

Income inequality insulates the upper classes from societal instability and environmental collapse. Things like crime can rise without well-off neighborhoods noticing it. By the time shit gets really bad within a civilization and the lower classes start to revolt, it's usually too late. I don't think the USA/UK/Oz is close to having this occur yet, but it is an issue. A less educated and unhealthy labor force is not good for productivity or social mobility, making income inequality a sort of positive feedback loop where the rich lobby for government spending on things like private schools that keep their kids in the cycle of nepotism, which also negatively affects productivity.

I can't name a specific point where it becomes bad. I'm not a communist or laissez faire, I support a mixed economy like any realistic person, but decline comes in shades, I guess.