The more general problem is an increasing divergence between the growth of income of the economic elite, including but not limited to the financial elite, and the growth of national income. This in turn escalates political conflict between the economic elite and the knowledge elite. If there is little overlap between these two groups, as in the US, the economic elite will use both ideological capture of the knowledge elite (think Greenspan, perhaps even Summers) and covert funding of crackpots, witch-hunters, etc who resent and despose the knowledge elite. This may not lead to fascism in the US or UK but almost certainly it will destroy both civility and economic growth.