Mark Hubbard: Mansions vs. poverty

I read the July 5 news article “Homebuyers, builders going big in Wake County” about the increasing number of huge houses in Wake County with a sort of sickened fascination.

The huge divide between the haves and have-nots simply cannot be maintained forever.

The July 5 news article “India census: Majority is poor, rural, landless” about how 70 percent of the rural population of India is landless provided a concrete picture of where we’ll likely end up if the wage gap in this country isn’t addressed and as resources are consumed.

Even if the wage gap is narrowed, what does a person do if the guy who owns the land won’t sell? What if he won’t hire that person? What percentage of the U.S. population stuck in an unbreakable cycle of poverty are we willing to tolerate? How long can the people stuck in this cycle tolerate it?

I believe angry “confederates” and the angry residents of Ferguson, Missouri, both are symptoms of cyclical poverty rearing its head, unaddressed, in the face of shrinking opportunity, as the able few blissfully spread out into their 3,000- to 5,000-square-foot beige castles.

This story was originally published July 8, 2015 at 6:02 PM with the headline "Mark Hubbard: Mansions vs. poverty."