What sort of heart (or soul) should America strive for?

All the debate about the “Fiscal Cliff” and the “Debt Ceiling” seems to me to really boil down to what sort of country we wish the USA to be. Who should be able to prosper here, and who should be written out of play by the rules of the game—as set by national fiscal policy? Read this article by Senator Bernie Sanders. Do you agree with the statistics he cites. If not, can you show where he is wrong? If the statistics he cites are correct, then do the conclusions he reaches flow from those facts, or has he identified the right problem, yet proposed a wrong solution to it?

If you think the current wealth and income inequality is not enough, how great should it get before things are right? Do you think it’s just right as it is? If so, what actions would you take to stop its continuing climb? If you think it’s too great already, how much should it shrink before we risk demotivating the entrepreneurial spirit that has driven the economic growth since its founding days?

Remember that allowing wealth disparity levels to reach those of banana republics will mean the USA becomes a banana republic economy, with virtually no consumers to drive production and jobs. How many iPads will a small handful of fabulously wealthy people reasonably buy? How many cars? How many houses?

Please read the article and respond with facts, not ad hominem fallacies about who asked the question, who wrote the article, or what media outlet ran the story. If you want to dispute the article’s facts or conclusions, cite specifics and not argument by assertion fallacies, begging the question fallacies, or other fallacious arguments about the article’s premises and conclusions. Rest assured that fallacious argument of any kind will be called out as such, and if unhelpful, flagged, whether they argue in support of or against the cited article. Like Sergeant Joe Friday used to say so often, “All we want are the facts.”