A fairer slice of America's apple pie

One of the things we Brits find odd about America is that a land with such gross inequality has no socialist party, writes Peter Rhodes.

The United States is run by rich people for rich people, with poor people fighting America's wars.

Against all the evidence, Americans seem to think they live in a fair society and genuinely believe that any one of them could become President (even though the last few have all been millionaires).

But things may be changing. The Occupy demos in New York and other US cities raged against the inequality of the US system and the tax cuts enjoyed by the top one per cent of American society.

Maybe that great illusion, the American dream, is beginning to crumble.

A nation built on a vision of motherhood and apple pie is finally demanding a fairer slice of the pie - and good luck to them.