Inequality Is At The Heart of America’s Fracturing, Says George Packer

Author and Atlantic writer George Packer joins Morning Joe to discuss his new book 'Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal,' and why he says inequality is at the heart of the country's fracturing.

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Inequality Is At The Heart of America's Fracturing, Says George Parker

47 comments

    1. They don’t want to hear that though. They only want excuses to why they’re all failures so they rely on conservative blue collar workers to give them their paychecks and cry injustice at the same time

  1. Billionaire Bezos pays no taxes and is awarded taxpayer’s money to fund his business expansion. So yeah I’d say there is inequality in the American economic system.

    1. Not defending Amazon and its practices or Bezos really. But, Amazon made no profits for a long time. They survived the dotcom implosion from 20+ years ago like eBay did.

    2. Bezels has $500 million of properties so I think he does pay taxes . After all property taxes are tied to value , something like 0.5% to 2% depending on the state .

    3. Yes, the tax laws and their loopholes are a big reason for the inequality.

    4. Bezos built his company from the ground up. He deserves everything he has. Go out and work for it, victim.

    5. @Just wait A minute The problem with your argument is that you are making assumptions about the nature of where value comes from and how remuneration should be related to value. You’re also ignoring the consequential aspects. For instance, by your logic feudalism is fine as long as they started from nothing at some point in the past. Not legal feudalism, i.e. serfs having restrictions on particular rights, merely de facto feudalism. In short, you are recapitulating the corruption of the word aristocracy, from rule of the best, to ‘the people who rule must be the best or they wouldn’t be there’, and ignoring all the causal and logical problems along the way.

      You need to think critically about the more complex economic elements in particular, rather than essentialising the whole thing.

    1. Go to move to Venezuela if you want that. Just know it’s never ended well… for anyone. I work hard for my salary and you don’t deserve a cent of it. Work hard and make a living.

  2. Trickle down repub policies started the spiraling downward of this country and it has finally been exposed as the sham it has always been!

    1. 1st you need to understand how our laws come to be! Would you rather live in a one party rule country? I can give you advice on countries you can live in! I am not saying you will like it.. but they are one party rule systems!

    2. Once again no substance! Boring talking points that every liberal news networks repeat and repeat and repeat!

    3. @Artist Artist First that’s not relevant to what you were replying to. Second, there are multiple de facto one-party rule democracies where a single party dominated for decades, and that includes several very successful states.

      Third you’re not making any actual substantive argument, just offering what amounts to a weird anecdotal aside.

      A discussion of how democratic processes and norms operate, and the benefits, risks and costs associated would be fine, if it was relevant, and if you were actually doing that.

  3. I would like to know why everything is so dag on expensive and wages are so low. Housing, cars, education, food is sky high. The only cheap thing in America are goods from China….What is being done about that?

    1. What is being done about that? Amazon, Wal-Mart, etc. People will sell any product they can make a profit on, and American products are less profitable because of executive salaries and middle-men… You know, the real do nothings of society.

  4. We live in a society where the rich and powerful love to label anyone who cries “Inequality” a “Socialist”… and this seems to have worked very well for the rich and powerful

    1. The most wealthiest people in America are progressive Democrats. You were talking about our financial supporters.

    2. It worked best in the Bolshevik and the French Revolutions. I heartily and sincerely hope you get to experience those utopias personally.

  5. True. Average working people and small businesses have hard time to prosper and grow. There are almost only 2 classes left: the very rich and the poor.

    1. Except that “the rich” and “the poor” are not really “classes because neither of these two groups see themselves as a class that will act in its own interests as a class. Packers’ named groups (the free, the real etc) DO tend to act as classes. Which is why we had the insurrection and why we have the GOP cow-towing to their leader in largo because of fear they will not be electable because not sufficiently in awe of their “dear” holy leader

  6. “Satan’s greatest trick is to convince us he doesn’t exist.”

    The GOP’s greatest trick is to convince the working class that the GOP is a working-class party.

    1. @Anurag Chakraborty nafta was drafted/designed under Bush1.
      (y’all really don’t get how calendars work)

    2. now that wages are up, that GOP is screaming about the business owners.
      they’re showing their allegiance now.
      (chipotle CEO comp = $38million, burritos up 4%, wages at $15)

    3. @efs 1066 Nafta was given the green light by Bill Clinton. He had the option to bin it forever but chose not to.

    4. Sadly ego’s drive simple folk more than logic; as PT Barnum said “a sucker is born every minute”. The need to hear and believe we are ‘better’ becomes even more biased, illogical and potentially violent the lower a persons intelligence & self awareness is. People of evil intent with high intelligence can lead (trick) such simple folk to do almost anything.

  7. Listen, the math is so simple even a dumb-dumb like me can understand it.
    1) Money _makes_ money. Money = power. Power _makes_ money.
    2) More money _makes_ more money. More money = more power. More power _makes_ more money.
    3) The most money _makes_ the most money. The most money = the most power. The most power _makes_ the most money.

  8. I heard a great analogy recently to this wealth gap problem. A rich white American, a poor white American, and a minority American were in the same room eating a pizza pie. The rich one grabbed 7 slices and told the poor one that the minority would steal the last slice.

  9. Yuri Bezmenov told us it’s you. You are the bad guys. And your plan of demoralization , subversion and created crisis is at the heart.

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