Midas

You know the myth of the king who was granted a wish and chose to have everything he touched turn to gold.  It started out well but when he grabbed an apple and it turned to gold he had a problem.  Eventually he fed on himself.  That is the jist of Chrystia Freeland's article in the New York Times.  The article isn't about Kings but about the rich Venetians of the fourteenth century.  Venice had organized a joint stock company called the Colleganza.  The Colleganza would finance the merchant voyages and everyone would participate in the wealth that acrrued.  In 1315 at the height of Venetian wealth the aristocracy formed Libro d'Oro, book of gold.  It was the registry of who was deemed to be an aristocrat.  New members were not allowed.  The populace called it La Serrata or The Closure.  The closure ended the Colleganza.
We have an American Serrata.  You see it in the schools their kids go to; where they all live and where they all go together to vacation.  In 1950 the tax for the richest was 90%.  Of the richest 400 in the US six  paid nothing, 27 paid less than 10% and not one of them paid the 35% that I paid.  93% of the recovery money of 2008 went to the top 1%.  The top .01% got 35% of the money.  Are you better off than your parents were in 1950?