I agree with the long term / short term dichotomy.
I believe the same dynamic is at work WRT the concentration of wealth in the US. I understand the short term desire to accumulate wealth. I do it myself. It seems to me that if trends continue, there will be less and less income for the other 99% to spend. (Yes, I'm mixing income and wealth here because I believe that the desire to increase wealth on the part of the wealthy results in downward pressure on income for the rest of us.) In my Econ 101 class they spoke of the velocity of money - how much gets spent. It seems to me that the velocity has to go down as earnings go down and at that point, the ability to accumulate wealth would start to decrease.
(These thoughts ignore the possibility that those who are not wealthy could provoke social upheaval. I don't know if that's a real possibility.)
I think it is a possibility, the wealthy are building doomsday bunkers. There is writing on the wall, they just need to outlast the uprising and then come out and buy up everything really cheap.
I believe the same dynamic is at work WRT the concentration of wealth in the US. I understand the short term desire to accumulate wealth. I do it myself. It seems to me that if trends continue, there will be less and less income for the other 99% to spend. (Yes, I'm mixing income and wealth here because I believe that the desire to increase wealth on the part of the wealthy results in downward pressure on income for the rest of us.) In my Econ 101 class they spoke of the velocity of money - how much gets spent. It seems to me that the velocity has to go down as earnings go down and at that point, the ability to accumulate wealth would start to decrease.
(These thoughts ignore the possibility that those who are not wealthy could provoke social upheaval. I don't know if that's a real possibility.)