Shared pain is lessened, shared joy is increased

That's the most important lesson I've learned from the work of Spider Robinson, but its hardly the only one. For his Callahan's Bar stories alone, I owe the man - never mind all the excellent novels he's written and the great music he's turned me on to or his excellent podcast. He made me realize that punning was not a criminal offense and he introduced me to Bushmills (okay, so maybe he owes everyone who's ever met me an apology - but not me, I owe him BIG).

And so, I wanna tug on your coatsleeve for a minute.

First, for those of you not in the know, let me say that the man is a national treasure. As a writer, he's won most of the major awards they give out in science fiction and with good reason. He's also a regular writer for the Mop&Pail though they foolishly discontinued his regular column a few years back. We won't even get into the massive runaway thing that Callahan's has become on the internet. Suffice to say that at one point the Callahan's bulletin board forum was just about the biggest non-porn site there was back in the days of usenet. Furthermore, he's a natural storyteller and ten minutes listening to his podcast will make you wonder why the CBC hasn't signed this guy as the second coming of Peter Gzowski or at least a summer replacement for Stuart McLean.

Second, let me say that his wife, Jeanne, is also a national treasure as one of the country's foremost choreographers and former modern dancers. She is currently engaged in bringing to life an idea that was the foundation of a trilogy of great science fiction novels Spider and Jeanne co-wrote called Stardance that won a hatful of awards. That idea is dancing in zero gravity and you can see the early experiments here and follow the project here.

So, Spider and Jeanne Robinson are some of my favorite people and their presence their alone is enough to make me consider moving to Bowen Island, BC, when we do move back to Canada.

Kumbayah, hugs and shots of Bushmills all 'round.

Now we get to the harder part.

I learned last week from Spider's podcast that bad things happen to good people. Jeanne went into the hospital for what was supposed to be minor surgery a couple of months ago and it was discovered she had a very nasty case of cancer. She starts radiation treatments this week. Spider's been lucky enough to have her sisters fly in from the east coast to help care for her over the last month or so and apparently has lots of good friends and neighbors to help out too. But I suspect, no, I know, it isn't going to be easy for him to write the new series of books he just signed up to do or any other paying copy while his mind is occupied with trying to help his wife and obviously Jeanne is going to be doing any work for awhile either. Unless someone is making a multimillion dollar movie of your novel, science fiction writing does not pay that well, no matter how good you are and their home is not called "Tottering on the Brink" for nothing.

So if you could drop a few bucks in the hat for them, it would be very, very much appreciated.

Richistan. Taking too much from the company store.

Warren Buffett is documented as the third richest man in the world. On an income of $46 million he is taxed at a rate of 17.7 percent. His secretary, who earns $60,000 annually, is taxed at a rate of 30 percent.

Who's complaining about this? Warren Buffett.

Even he and people like Bill Gates can recognize that such a tax system and such a misalignment of wealth in a developed country like the United States is a recipe for disaster.

Mr Buffett, who runs the investment group Berkshire Hathaway and is widely regarded as the world’s most successful investor, said that he was a Democrat because Republicans are more likely to think: “I’m making $80 million a year – God must have intended me to have a lower tax rate.”

None of this is passing without notice. As the gap between the rich and the poor widens, the jungle is beginning to get a little noisy, and as the rich get very rich, it is becoming obvious that they are eating a hole in the all important middle class and driving the poor further down the human scale of mere existence.

Defenders of low tax for the very rich point to the theory of trickledown economics - the spending power of the rich benefiting the poor. But while the super-rich have boomed, the earning power of the average and poor citizen has not nearly matched the performance of the elite. In 2005 the top one per cent of earners in the US gained 14 per cent in income in real terms, while the rest of the country gained less than one per cent. The situation is especially bad for the severely poor - those living at half the poverty level - whose numbers are at a 32-year high. The rich are getting richer but are not bringing everyone else with them. 'If you look at the impact of the last 20 years it seems pretty clear that trickledown just does not work,' said Paul Buchheit, economics professor at Chicago's Harold Washington College.

It doesn't take a genius to build a quick picture of how the system is working in favour of the rich. The middle class is literally awash in debt. And for every credit card purchase which will not be paid off within 30 days, some bank, or hedge fund manager drags in more money than the value of the original purchase - for doing virtually nothing.

A common but misplaced assumption is that the growth in debt among middle-income families — those with incomes roughly between $25,000 to $70,000 a year — is the result of over-consumption through increased credit card debt. Rather, growth in debt is primarily due to heavier borrowing for investments in homes or education, both of which saw dramatic price increases in recent years. The cost of a college education, for example, grew by 24.6% between 2001 and 2004, after adjusting for inflation.

Then we have the George W. Bush system of taxation which, as anyone with a functioning synapse can see, will never favour those without pre-exisiting bags of money. Banks have now developed reputations which rival that of used-car dealers. A customer walks out the door knowing he/she has been stiffed.

And while the wealthy get richer and spend their money on items not generally considered useful for the majority of working people, those who are attempting to buy the staples of life in a developed country, (a home; childrens' education; a chance to retire eating something other than cat food}, spend more than they earn. The beneficiaries of that spending are the same wealthy few who created the situation for the middle-class in the first place.

Declare bankruptcy? Not in the US. The banks, whose earnings are going though the financial roof, pushed for legislation which put a crimp on that type of consumer protection. If you owe, you pay - for the rest of your life, if necessary.

What everyone seems to be missing is that it cannot last. The death of the middle-class, as Warren Buffett is well aware, means the death of the wealthy. If the middle-class, enmasse, becomes so overwhelmed in debt they will eventually just stop paying. Then the yachts, the mega-mansions and the $1000 omelettes will also end. And with the end of those luxuries will end the economy generated by those items. The rich will lose their goodies and those who provide them will lose their jobs.

It will be the end of the second Gilded Age. It will also spell the death of the conservative movement, but not without taking the entire economy with it.