[Seth]

Good thought, 'concentrating on your own sphere of influence'.

I like the notion that I'm free to choose my success and failure, accepting that not everything in life is controllable. The 'love your neighbor' mindset is what elevates a more libertarian society above what Marxist thought can ever achieve. To regiment distribution of wealth, above one's freedom to choose to pursue wealth, is a recipe for disaster.

The political phenomena that scratches the back of those educated(broad connotation) is a natural one. The way I see it, getting enough people tussed enough to push for a re-distribution of wealth is not only foolish(considering who would direct the change) but also counter-productive to a widespread charitable mindset.

There's a woman who's really into urban gardening in detroit. She has built her garden through hard work, in one of the more dangerous blocks in the city. People don't touch her shit because she continually acts with generosity, being able to do so from her hard work. It's like some natural balance that dictates that no one can mess with the garden lady because that affects the entire community that otherwise wouldn't be recipient of her fresh tasty food. To me, this is an example of the American dream working despite a possible negative attitude which would have scoffed at the idea of creating an unprotected garden in such a dangerous milieu.
Positive attitude and awareness of the self's ability to make change, even if it's within a small 'sphere of influence', is what defines America's successes. One can look at the bully-like attitude that has ravaged much of the developing world in order to procur wealth for the already wealthy, as prof mentioned, a rather large disparity(70% compared to 30%)....but that's a phenomena of people's ability to make choices, and while it's sick and disgusting(in its resulting disparity), I don't believe it's the defining character of America. Also, to remove that motivation is to risk everything worth standing for.
I don't see things getting much better for the average bloke, I see the government skillfully and methodically increasing the control it has over one's ability to pursue potential wealth abundance... ie knowledge affording food that isn't GMO empty nutrition. I think the biggest issue as a nation(collective western nations) is the push to keep people sick enough to support a self created treatment industry. The purposeful ignorance of the average consumer as to what creates lifetime health and happiness has been a huge component in not only America's inability to keep pace with countries like India but it has completely undermined the future prospects of freedom within 'free' countries. The level of censoring and abuse that the government can inflict on the people is a result of passive negativity and the idea that change is impossible in an environment which cators to an elite wallstreet whose support for the American dream has been turned on its head by its own greed. The wealth disparity that the uber rich are in part creating is the same change that has weakened the nation as well as peoples' opinion of 'the dream'. There's always going to be greedy assholes, and subsequent poor. The big question is what you're going to do about it? Realistic change through real political upheaval(partisan elections don't count) is a quaint musing, hardly possible in the year 2010 onward.

It amounts to the influence one has based on continual choice. grassroots grassroots. It can start in a single small community where people are influenced enough to have a charitable outlook, simply because of the positive attitude that America still allows for an individual. Being in Thailand, and facing severe penalties for jokingly saying something insulting about the king, is an example of the relative freedom we have. As much as our doors can now be legally busted down without court order, habeus corpus out the window, etc, there's still a level of choice that's unknown in much of the world. Count blessings not curses?
sorry for not really adding much to the discussion...just my morning thought.