"I can't see how an employed and wealthy population could be a bad thing."
It isn't. But what we're facing is a _small_ employed and extremely wealthy fraction of the population together with a _huge_ low-paid supermajority of the population.
Small business owners want fewer and less taxes, no unions, lower wages, lower healthcare costs, fewer worker protections, etc. Left to themselves they would drive wages to zero. Small businesses join others to support certain non-profits that lobby in Washington, DC on their behalf. Nothing illegal, but one must ask such questions as: "Where are the lobbyists for low-paid workers?" or "Who will support the workers' families after the workers die from inhaling toxic substances day after day?" These are questions in which the small businessman's lobbyist has no interest.
In one chapter "Conscience of a Liberal" Krugman histories the development of this relatively new conservative and wealthy network of individuals and not-for-profit corporations. Read/skim the book for details:
http://www.amazon.com/Conscience-Liberal-Paul-Krugman/dp/039...
One of Krugman's points is that the middle class is disappearing in the USA: wealth distribution now mirrors that which existed in the so-called "Gilded Age" of the Rockefellers, Carnegie et al (late 19th-early 20th century): a small percentage of extremely rich people and a large percentage of poor, with a very small middle class.
FDR's New Deal, by increasing taxes radically on the wealthy (both inheritance and income taxes) and increasing wages, brought a strong middle-class into existence. That middle class has been the engine of the US economy but is dwindling. The solution is to restore taxes and support the worker's causes.
Gilded Age:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Age
"Why We’re in a New Gilded Age" by Paul Krugman:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/may/08/thomas-...
The Rich, the Right, and the Facts: Deconstructing the Income Distribution
http://prospect.org/article/rich-right-and-facts-deconstruct...
he has a lot of stuff on his blog discussing tax policies and their effect on things like income growth.
https://www.amazon.com/Conscience-Liberal-Paul-Krugman/dp/03...
I'm conservative in general, but I agreed with Bernie Sanders on (at least) 3 issues and have a 4th bone to pick with USA politics:
1) Privacy is paramount; the government should stay out of our lives as much as possible. "Terrorism" is no excuse for a government to monitor its citizens.
2) Taxes must be severely increased on the wealthy. "Death taxes" must be restored and income taxes raised on the wealthy. To do otherwise creates a situation where wealth accumulates to individuals w/o bound.
3) corporations must not be allowed the rights of persons. Campaign finance reform must occur and the power of special interests must be cut.
Until we restore heavy estate taxes ("death taxes"), income taxes, and reduce the political power of corporations as well, the USA will continue its long slide toward an economy like Mexico's, where there are only the poor and the rich, and no middle class.
Finally (something Sanders would likely avoid):
4) as part of (3), non-profit corporations and all foundations, public or private, (churches, foundations, organizations, etc.) should be both taxed and audited. Today they're little more than an end-run around taxation. They are too powerful politically. They're controlled by their founders and their families. They are economically inefficient - releasing their resources (by breakup, taxation, etc.) would boost the economy greatly.
During the Middle Ages the British and French took possession of the (then) Roman Catholic Church's lands, possessions and clergy. After all, the Church _was_ meddling in the political, and not the spiritual, realm. I think its time for the USA to do the same:
"Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution":
https://www.google.com/url?url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
"English Reformation - Wikipedia":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Reformation#Actions_by...