Capitalism wins!

Yes, capitalism wins.  And with capitalism it is "winner takes all".

That is the problem.  With unregulated capitalism the winners take all and the losers lose.  The success of capitalism and the propensity of deregulation have resulted in our current condition of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

The biggest problem we have with the "entitlement state" is the feeling of entitlement that the wealthy have toward their wealth, and that they feel entitled to have that wealth grow at unrealistic levels regardless of the drain it has on the overall economy.

The wealthy scorn any suggestion that tax policy include the "redistribution of wealth" to return some of that money back into the system to the benefit of the middle and lower classes.  The reality is that they welcome their own participation in the "redistribution of wealth" in their own direction by using the power of their wealth to concentrate that wealth toward themselves in the highest wealth class.

I believe that not only do we need to regulate capitalism to balance the power of corporations and the top tier of the wealthy, but we need to include a strongly progressive tax structure that taxes extreme income at the historical high rates that have been successful in the past.  But, while doing so, we must also tax the middle class in a way that helps dig us out of the fiscal pit we have collectively dug ourselves.  This will slow the "recovery" of our economy, but that slow recovery will be one that adapts to lower spending by both government and families, which will be a more stable and sustainable economy.  And that is the bitter pill we really need to take.  The delusion of being able to return to policies that got us here in the first place must be exposed for the folly that it is.