Every achievement in life comes with power including a small promotion at work. In personal life, let one partner make a lot of money and see how he or she will begin to behave and how friends treat them. They will get more friends. It is not the rich or money problem. It is a human behavior problem.

@St-Sinner I don’t mean power in interpersonal relationships. I mean they can sway politics and how things that are done in this world. Power and money buy things that shouldn’t be for sale.

@Apunzelle
What I meant was money brings power everywhere including in personal relationships. And we all want to be rich and want things in personal lives. If pursuing wealth is not good, we are all guilty. But if we just abhor someone's high wealth, we are guilty of hatred and underlying jealousy too.

@St-Sinner I definitely don’t abhor people who have wealth. We all aspire to have more to make our life richer and filled with things that bring fulfillment.

My main concern is that that much wealth is obscene and gives a tiny handful of individuals way too much power to change the world to their vision of what it should be. Especially related to politics.

@Apunzelle
I don't understand why it is obcene. The business is global now, it is not main street businesses any more. The likes of Carnegie, Mellons had geographic limitations. Millions sounded huge huge at that time. Digital revolution has changed the paradigm. Amazing things are possible. Bezos is envisioning and investing in space tourism. High talent, high success and high risk have high rewards. The water is warm and everybody is welcome. But don't not play and call some or something wrong or obscene. I don't see anything obscene here. In fact, I am proud that the U.S. has produced 8 of world's top 10 billionaires.

@St-Sinner I guess there’s always at least two ways to look at anything.

Should they be stopped from gaining wealth? What law, rule, tax we put to stop success? Every man and woman are free to achieve what they have achieved. Except of one, everybody is a self made billionaire who were poor to middle class as children. Cuba does not allow anyone to accumulate wealth,, North Korea is similar.

@St-Sinner better taxation would be helpful. As much as we say they are “self-made”, they received plenty of systemic help, from use of public services, roads for shipping products, to the acceptance of underpaying employees who often do the real labor. Unchecked capitalism is dangerous, IMO, and the root of many of today’s societal woes.

@St-Sinner under Eisenhower & thereabouts, the tax rate (and on corporations) was around 90%, and I do not see that it slowed anybody down.....

@Tinocca
High taxation would be vindictive. They do not need to be punished because they are rich. Most rich do many good things for the society such as charity foundations, supporting many small causes in the country and overseas, support art, civil rights, causes in the democracy, hospitals, schools, endowments to universities. If they are breaking the law, albeit, prosecute and throw them in jail. Ask your government representatives at all levels to act. May be the real solution is ask our asshole leaders to not do behind-the-table deals, take money from the rich and help them escape the law.

They used public services as much as all other regular citizens. Our constant anger against rich in this country is just the killer of the biggest reason why America is dreamed of around the world - the place for a thriving economy, freedom, opportunities to success - free from government harassment and punitive oversight.

Unless Americans begin living in places where the freedoms in America do not exist, they cannot comprehend what it really means for personal and economy growth. Democrats' continuous answer to our problems, joblessness, homelessness and own struggles in life is - Punish the Rich!. Occupy Wall Street, Bernicrats are all symptoms of that problem.