Jarofunk said:

Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain. These countries are perfect (and current) examples of what happens when lower end wage earners are given a standard of living more comparable to higher wage earners'.

Click to expand...

No, the issue is debt per capita. BTW, the USA carries more debt per capita than Greece. Narrowing the gap between rich and poor has little to do with it.

Denmark, where I worked, has a minimum wage comparable to $20/hr, everyone has health care, and the food is of far higher quality than the lower quality stuff you can buy in the USA. Homelessness is by choice, unemployment is non-existent. Taxes are far higher than in the USA, but despite that the standard of living is better.... FAR better for lower wage-earners, probably not much difference for top end wage-earners of course, because they can buy anything they want anyway. Maybe we have something to learn from other countries who seem to have it figured out???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTzMqm2TwgE&feature=player_embedded

I hope this will embed the video because it accurately sums up our fiscal situation in 2 min.