>Bush's policies have a
>>long-term effect of creating a plutocracy that is well-nigh
>>impossible to break into even with extraordinary wealth --
>
>thats like saying liberalism has a long term effect of
>creating communism which will end up killing tens of
>millions.

Bush is a classical conservative -- a reactionary even, or at least many on his team are -- and I'm fundamentally opposed to his (their) vision of a hierarchical, traditional society where only the lucky few can promise a better life to their children than they had, because I think that our mission should be to improve the world as a whole and not just safeguard our privileges and wealth for our progeny. I also believe that it is necessary to have a solid social safety net because, in a law-based capitalist society, there are winners and losers, and the winners benefit disproportionately from the protection that the legal structure provides for property and person, so they have an obligation to make sure the losers can at least minimally survive.

But back to the original point about the increasing concentration of wealth in this country and "class mobility" -- whatever happened to concepts like the common good, charity, and justice? If people rich and poor let those things guide them I think you might see a lot less carping about the wealth gap.