Doesn't Socialism Sound Like a Better Alternative?

Here's a good NY Times Op Ed piece on the growing gap between the Rich and the Not Rich in this country. The numbers are staggering:

Consider, for example, two separate eras in the lifetime of the baby-boom generation. For every additional dollar earned by the bottom 90 percent of the population between 1950 and 1970, those in the top 0.01 percent earned an additional $162. That gap has since skyrocketed. For every additional dollar earned by the bottom 90 percent between 1990 and 2002, Mr. Johnston wrote, each taxpayer in that top bracket brought in an extra $18,000.

If you haven't caught it already, check out the NY Times series on class segmentation in American society. Some really interesting articles in here. Do the rich really need to be this rich? Thanks Dubya!

Also, check out this other Op Ed piece to remind us how inaccessible college is becoming to the poor.