TJ,

Thank you since it's well established by several statistics that fly fishermen, on average, are considerably more literate and articulate than gut slingers. Sadly perhaps, for some fly fishermen, gut slingers come somewhat closer to holding their own in several critical thinking and analytical skills. That, no doubt, explains why they catch more fish. As a pragmatist and one interested in human nature, not to mention a salmon snob, I enjoy walking both sides of the street.

2Many,

Could be, but as KK points out, their are other makers of high quality, high end gear besides Sage. However, I did recently purchase a Sage rod blank, a discontinued model that gets very high reviews and on sale, of course. Now I gotta' scrape up the cash for a decent reel seat and components. I remember when corks were a dime each. Now the really good stuff is $2.95 per cork! And it takes 38 of 'em for a Spey rod. And then there's the wood burl insert reel seat that's another $88. Crikey, that elitist fly fishing game can get spendy!

FP,

I don't have any standard by which to judge wealth distribution. The little video describing where the distribution is now, and how it has shifted so significantly in relatively few years grabbed my interest. National wealth distribution is different than your examples of the distribution of a few physical attributes because it is likely to have a greater and more profound affect on the standard of living and quality of life for a majority of the country's population. That's why.

Re: your comments on science, I pretty much agree. I'm not so much advocating here as looking for interesting and intelligent conversation about a topic that might be important - or not. Seems like it is, so I'm checking it out.

If the current distribution is unsustainable, then I agree it will change, but that isn't necessarily the same as self-correction. You say that we need to quit using the government to promote class warfare . . . However, I think it's equally reasonable to suggest that the super-rich, who own most of the gov'ts'. financial functions, have been using gov't. and law to promote their own economic class warfare against the lower and middle classes. If power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, then a self-correction of an unsustainable wealth distribution may be stalled, prevented, or otherwise put off, thereby instigating something like storming the Bastille. It seems like avoiding that would be in the mutual interest of all economic classes, but maybe not.

Let me tell you something. We may or may not perceive reality the same. I don't know. However, I can say with certainty that you routinely err when you purport to know what I think. I haven't said that I think the wealth needs to be redistributed. I find the subject of distribution interesting and think the trend might not be sustainable, and could cause a major social upheaval, so I threw the topic on here. I don't know that the gov't. has to be involved in the redistribution process, but the thought occurs to me that the gov'ts' doing so might result in a more peaceful process than full on class warfare. The reason I don't trust the market and society to necessarily do a better job is because the super-rich and the gov't they own already control key aspects of the market. The free market that you frequently allude to does not exist, and since such a market is not in the direct interest of the controlling movers and shakers, I think a bonafide free market is out of the question. The best we can hope for is a regulated market that rewards productivity and opportunity and penalizes monopoly, oligopoly, cheating, and other negative attributes.

Your Bill Gates example, while noteworthy, is unique in that his friend Warren Buffet recently revealed that he contacted a large number of other billionaires and a lot of them don't have the same feelings about sharing their massive wealth. Consequently the Gate's style of redistribution most likely can't be counted on to result in a strong American middle class.

And another reason I know this subject is worth discussing is that it brought you out of your self-imposed exile. I'm fairly sure you didn't return just so you could talk about snagging chum salmon.

Sg