Rich & Poor

Two factors are working to make this happen.  One is the growing gap between the rich and the poor.  This is certainly happening in America and probably in Europe as well.

Beginning in the Reagan and Thatcher era, the gap began to widen.  One might think that at least for the better off, this might be a good thing.  After all wealth is a relative thing.  You feel wealthy not because of how much you have in absolute terms, but rather because of how much you have relative to others around you.  But while you may feel wealthy relative to the poor, your life will hardly be as pleasant as you might imagine.  For it is rather like living in a third world country.  Rather like living in Mexico, the expensive houses surrounded by high walls for fear that the poor will break in.  Bodyguards in bulletproof cars required to protect you and your family from kidnappings.  Really not much fun.

The fact is that when everyone is well off you are better off.  How much better it is, or at least was, in the United States when the difference in wealth was rather small, when the vast majority of the people had enough money that they all could relate to each other, aspire to similar dreams, and live together without undue jealousy or frustration.

That quality of life is fading today in the United States and in many other Western countries, and it bodes ill for the future.  France's underclasses Muslims and others will not be satisfied to sit quietly in their slums.  There is trouble ahead.  And now more troubles brewing.  For in America, and more recently in the UK, and now spreading throughout Europe a growing criminal underclass is being manufactured by foolish government policies.