I'm not sure what the GP's post was, but I'm genuinely curious. I have no experience of socialist countries, but I have several friends and colleagues who have emigrated over the last decade or so.

1. Is income equality the primary driver of a country descending into social turmoil?

2. If not, is the USA so politically and socially similar to those countries in other ways that an income equality system - or a system that moves in that direction - would be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back?

I'm particularly interested in #2 as a non-American.