It is not in our interest -- not in the interest of the majority of people who are not engaged in being or becoming high net worth individuals -- that things really go sick and bad. There's enough of a struggle ahead without it.

This is where Europe and the US don't match-up.

In Europe there are political parties and organizations that, at a minimum, pretend to be Left Wing.  There ain't none in the US as exhibited by the position of the two 2012 US presidential nominees on the Political Compass:

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre