Last week's publication of the so-called "sunshine" list of 88,412 Ontario public sector workers earning more than $100,000 per year elicited lots of howls of outrage in terms of online commentary.

It should not be forgotten that the whole point of the annual list -- which dates back to the Harris days -- is to yank on the chain of public opinion.

High public sector salaries are put forward for detailed scrutiny, with no basis for comparisons to private sector compensation.

A new report came out from the Fraser Institute this week looking at income mobility. It certainly doesn't intend to make this conclusion, but a thorough look at their data shows that the rich stay rich as everyone else fights for entrance to this exclusive club.

Bankers, financiers, capital markets lawyers, investors and economists -- people supposedly in the know -- routinely make the argument that the United States is more resilient, flexible and adaptable than any other major country in the world. America is down they say, but not out. The Americans, according to this line of thinking, will bounce back to reclaim their global economic dominance. As Clint Eastwood proclaimed in his commercial for the Super Bowl, it's Half-Time and America will come roaring back in the second half.

Capitalism has entered an ugly new era, one that may work well for the shareholders of the world, but not for the rest of us.

I couldn't help but notice that, on the very same day Caterpillar shuttered the doors of its London, Ontario locomotive plant and headed to low-wage Indiana, the Wall Street Journal reported federal corporate tax receipts as a share of profits had dropped to their lowest level in at least 40 years in the U.S. Sadly, that's not just an American story.