The strong and the weak cannot keep company

The tale of the Two Pots by Aesop has been much in my mind of late. As fate would have it, the fable was part of the training process for learning Microsoft's Speech Recognition to mitigate some of my disabilities.

Often proponents of the post Reagan economic system in the United States make the claim that there is no significant cost to huge income disparities. But, of course there are costs.

When the disparity between the middle class family and the family member on disability is of such a magnitude as it is in the United States, the realities of this disparity often make the maintenance of familiar ties all but impossible.

But of course it is not only families that are torn apart by these pressures. Friendships seldom survive a divergence of economic fortunes. Economic issues are also the prime cause of divorce.

When I was a child there as a recession that coincided with the completion of construction of a local nuclear plant. Suddenly the part time jobs of held by the wives of these displaced workers was the primary source of income. Social chaos ensued. Marriages dissolved, children were abused, and there was a infamous spree killing.

While the well off certainly fair better than the poor. Those with more money are as isolated or more so than those with none. A society if fewer social connections almost by necessity performs less well.

I am not calling for absolute wage parity or anything of the sort. I am only saying that there are costs of wealth disparity and these costs are not only social but financial and economic as well.

We are paying a price for the level of wealth disparity in our culture. And, until we are honest about that price, no genuine discussion of the merits of the current system can be had.

Here is the fable:

The Two Pots

Two Pots had been left on the bank of a river, one of brass,
and one of earthenware. When the tide rose they both floated off
down the stream. Now the earthenware pot tried its best to keep
aloof from the brass one, which cried out: "Fear nothing, friend,
I will not strike you."

"But I may come in contact with you," said the other, "if I
come too close; and whether I hit you, or you hit me, I shall
suffer for it."

The strong and the weak cannot keep company.