How Many Rich Folks Will Step Up To The Plate?

We've heard a lot lately about workers' low wages in the fast food industry. I'd include workers in other industries, but right now, let's just stick to the fast food business. Talk of worker raises has also brought talk of rising product prices.Why? You don't think the wealthy corporate executives and wealthy stockholders are going to give up anything, do you? I just checked, and the CEO for McDonald's Corporation makes nearly 14 million dollars. I'm telling you, that poor guy doesn't know where his next hamburger is coming from. And fries? Oh my! Folks, the only way some of the terrible income inequality that has built up over the last three + decades is going to be brought down, is for those at the top to have to give a little; otherwise, they're just going to keep passing along any cost increases to consumers. You know that means, to you and to me, but they get the same percentage of the income. While millions of Americans have struggled over the years, the wealthiest have born no sacrifice. It's time they learn the meaning of the word "sacrifice," instead of just practicing ruthless greed to pile millions on top of millions in accumulated wealth. Many statistics show that such inequality in American hasn't been this bad for more than a hundred years. If the wealthy keep at this, my prediction of a new feudal society will come true, and I want very much to be wrong.*  I'm not saying price increases should always be off the table (no pun intended), but first let's see how many wealthy people will relinquish, let's say, 3% of their income from that particular business (including big stockholders, not just execs), before we start talking price increases. Who will step up to the plate? Don't all of you multimillionaires and billionaires charge up here at once now! 

* See my article at this link: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/10/you-wont-need-time-machine.html

WORD HISTORY:
Plate-This word traces back to Indo European "plat," which had the notion of "to spread, to make thin by spreading." This gave Greek "platys/platis," which meant "broad, wide, spread out." This gave Latin "plattus," which then became "plata," and meant "flat piece of metal." Old French, a Latin based language, inherited a form of the word as "plate," with the same meaning, but also "metal disk used as a coin." English borrowed the word from French in the 1200s, but its meaning, by extension, also moved to "disk used to serve food," the most common modern meaning, but the "flat piece of metal" meaning is still very much alive.A verb form developed from noun in the late 1300s, but then it meant "to put metal pieces (plates) on something," but which later became the more common "to serve up food," as in, "The cook plated the pasta and we all took our share."