end of the american dream?

Observer columnist Paul Harris writes that the gap between the rich and the rest of us in the USA is widening rapidly -- and it is harder and harder to bridge the gap.

Conservative Republicans scream "class warfare" whenever somebody proposes anything to help the poor at the expense of the rich. It's curious how the party that is full of people who refuse to believe the evidence supporting evolution in nature is so anxious to embrace social Darwinism in human society with their "let-them-eat-cake" attitude towards the disadvantaged and unlucky. Because luck is a big part of being rich. Luck in who your parents are. Luck in having a good idea at exactly the right time. Getting the big break. No, getting rich in business isn't just luck, ability certainly factors in. But luck is a huge factor, folks.

Nobody's talking about 90% marginal tax rates or anything like that. But we could at least stop the Insane Clown Posse I mean de facto Bush Administration policy of giving more and more tax breaks to the rich. The defeat of the estate tax repeal effort last week in the Senate was good, but the rich are still way, way ahead. As uber-investor and well-known rich man Warren Buffet said, "If class warfare is being waged in America, my class is clearly winning."