Hot dog, what a quandry

It would seem that one of the major, if not THE major trends or areas of differences in the coming election is the question of equality of wealth.

One side apparently believes that it is okay to make as much money as possible, particuarly if one does it through legitimate means. The other side apparently believes that sharing that wealth is a better idea.

Which leads me to hot dogs. Let me say up front that I like hot dogs. I like them all sorts of ways. I do not like them this way:

  A hot dog in Arkansas is a little more expensive than your typical dog. Selling for more than $1,500, it is the world's most expensive hot dog. It was made with a quarter pound of premium beef with lobster tail, saffron and gold flakes. The vendor managed to sell four of them for a $6,000 profit. The money was donated to a non-profit group that supports the homeless. The vendor of the pricey dog broke the world record for the most expensive hot dog.

I immediately thought of the idea Jesus proposed: "Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

It is true that the top 10 percent of people in this country control 2/3 of the nation's wealth. It is also true that the super wealthy in this country have grabbed the bulk of the nation's gains in wealth in the past three decades. The question before us is whether this is a bad thing, and if so, what do we do about it.

Over the past 30 years the rich in America have become a lot richer, while many millions of Americans have seen their income stagnate or decline. As Warren Buffett, the second richest man in America, said, “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” Wealth and income inequality today is by far the worst in the industrialized world and has fallen in line with many Third World countries. Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz explains why this is bad news: 

Some people look at income inequality and shrug their shoulders. So what if this person gains and that person loses? What matters, they argue, is not how the pie is divided but the size of the pie. That argument is fundamentally wrong. An economy in which most citizens are doing worse year after year—an economy like America’s—is not likely to do well over the long haul.

The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live. Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 percent eventually do learn. Too late.

So, what do we do? How do we do it? Who does it?

This is all above my, uh, pay grade. But this I know. If even a few of those families are church goers and even a few of them tithe, whew, there's some hot dogs for the Sunday potluck.