Size of government to me is beyond spending and employee size; although those are symptoms. It is about how much they over reach the constitution and how much they have influence over my life.

Monte, yes you are definitely not getting what I'm saying. Let me rephrase it differently.

What I'm saying is that the inequality between rich and poor in terms of standard of living is not the worst it's been in history; in fact it is not far from the best in history. Consider my example from the medieval era.

The inequality only seems more today because of the nominal terms of money + inflation. But in terms of standard of living; the poor are much closer to the rich then in almost any other point in history.

You cannot compare dollars today to dollars back then; the US dollar has devalued 98% since it's creation.

id like to see some real data that supports your claim that the level its at now is the lowest ever. i cant argue with medieval times when there were such classes as king and peon. im thinking more along the lines of this past century. i thought the uberrich right now are being taxed less than ever?

which makes me assume your argument is that, yes the uberrich are taxes less than ever, BUT the poor are richer/moreprivileged now that ever in a greater way, so the ratio is going down, not up.

which might all be the case... id have to see some research i guess.

Hah, from the evidence presented it seems like the use of internet forums is correlated with high intelectual capacity

No it is true that income inequality is maybe higher today then 10s of years ago. But the point I'm making is that the long term trend is for there being less difference in standard of livings as opposed to more.

So if everyone wants to get up in arms in a small dip upon a long term trend of astronomical progress... go right ahead. It just pains me to see the ignorance of people claiming capitalism is this terrible thing; when look at where we have come from.

The issue today is not income equality it is government size; spending; and corruption. Non of which has anything to do with capitalism; but in a moment away from capitalism into central planning (keynes) + crony capitalism.

moment = movement

30 years ago isnt that long ago dead. you're dead wrong about standard of living relative to each other.

Thanks but read my post next time.