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The downfall of our economy

There are 1,000 different things causing our problems right now, but the biggest is the degradation of wealth. Some how, we've allowed our society to believe that the accumulation of wealth is inherently evil. That no wealth is truly earned. This is patently wrong. Wealth is, by in large, well earned. It is accumulated through the production of economic activity, whether service or product related. We've allowed the indiscretions of a few to be characterized as the whole. Not unlike racial discrimination.
 
It fits nicely into the political narrative of left minded power seekers. The wealthy are an extreme minority ( 1 or 2% actually) so they don't have the power of protest or voting blocks. Beating on the wealthy makes the left feel powerful, and gives them credibility with their voting block - the one they take from the rich to buy with phones, food, soon health care, and even a few jobs.
 
What degradation of wealth are you speaking about? Fact is that it is the middle class that is getting squeezed, not the wealthy. The wealthy are evil when they use their extreme wealth to buy politicians.
 
Thoughts of a Liberal:
1) The accumulation of wealth is morally neutral, provided you aren't doing anything unethical to get it.
2) As wealth accumulates, the marginal propensity to spend decreases and each additional dollar amassed cycles through the economy slower than the last.
3) Our economy works by dollars circulating around, and everyone but our enemies would prefer a more robust economy with fast circulation.

Therefore, with all things being equal
A) Society should incentivize the accumulation of wealth in ways that benefit the economy (i.e. low taxes and government assistance for people who actually create well paying jobs and make useful products)

B) If people are not benefiting the economy (creating crappy jobs, making crap products, etc.), society should not incentivize their accumulation of more wealth (higher taxes and no government assistance)

C) Because of decreasing MPtS, each new dollar accumulated provides fewer benefits to society than the last (they'd be spent faster by someone with less money and a higher MPtS). Correspondingly, society has a diminished incentive to assist in the accumulation of more wealth (taxes should progressively increase, government assistance decrease).


The downfall of our economy comes from not reserving the greatest incentives for those doing the most beneficial things for the economy and from not reserving the harshest treatment for those doing things detrimental to the economy.
 
Middle class wealth has increased drastically in the last 50 years. People just do not feel wealthier because their wealth is in that income-consuming 2K sq. ft. house. Likewise, they waste their wealth in those two $35K+ cars sitting in the garage losing value every day, neither of which have anything to do with their paycheck other than they make enough to afford to make the payments.
 
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