Inequality Buzz

A lot of buzz about inequality recently, in politicking and in the blogs I follow.  Let the list commence!
Robert Reich on Social Darwinism - basically, the rich get richer, only the strong survive.  This is case in point that some members of the GOP are using the budget deficit as a screen for leaving the poor out to dry; Paul Ryan's plan will end up with similar budget deficit levels.
John Sides via Mark Thoma about budgeting concerns - the GOP is actually not closely following its "constituents" as one might imagine; the guys upstairs want to cut SS, Medicare/aid, but a poll suggests that even Republican primary voters are against cutting these.
Roger Altman via Mark Thoma urging action - or rather, no more inaction on inequality.  Do something about taxes and education, Altman says.  A comment in the comments section suggests that globalization and union busting is a source as well, but I don't think that's necessarily the case.  Globalization improves efficiency, and consumers greatly benefit from lower prices; you'll lose a few jobs, but I'm inclined to think those are low-skilled jobs, and we should be educating those people to be successful at high wage jobs.  Unions can decrease productivity; when low-skill jobs really sucked, protecting the worker was crucial.  Now, some unions are prone to inaction, being belligerent and protecting workers' jobs when the occasional guy really needs to get fired.

My two cents?  Inequality is OK.  REAL socialism (not "Obama socialism" crap) and communism was a disaster for quite a few countries.  Not gross inequality, like what we're seeing, but some variation in wealth should be expected.  It would be nice to change the mentality of "haves and have-nots" to "haves and soon-to-haves", but there's nothing that the (Republican) candidates are doing to suggest that they're working to ensure that people are actually in the "soon-to-have" arena.  Alas, there seems to be no effort, and as the wise C-3P0 said "We seem to be made to suffer"; it's looking more and more like "haves and never-to-haves".

I could've sworn I've read way more stuff on inequality... This is an unfortunately wimpy list.