Kasdan's 'Grand Canyon" gap is beginning to look understated

When Lawrence Kasdan made "Grand Canyon" in 1991, a lot of people accused him of being overly preachy in making his point.

Kasdan's "grand canyon" was the massive -- and ever growing -- gap between the rich and the poor in modern Los Angeles. At the time, there were few places in the world where people who were incredibly wealthy and grindingly poor lived so close to each other.

The same year "Grand Canyon" was released, Hollywood producer Aaron Spelling completed his dream house, a 56,500 square foot mansion in Holmby Hills that included a bowling alley, a wine storage and tasting room, gift-wrapping room, a humidity-controlled silver storage room, China room, library, gym and media room and a screening room. The 17,000 square foot attic included both a barber shop and a beauty salon.

The estate -- calling it a house just seems ridiculous -- also included a parking lot that would hold 100 cars.

Spelling's widow Candy finally sold it in 2011 to a British heiress for $150 million.

Only a few miles to the south and east, hundreds of thousands of black and Latino Angelenos live in total poverty and have little hope of ever escaping it. It's so expensive even to live badly in Los Angeles that very few people are able to climb the ladder the traditional way.

And of course, there are so many people of questionable ethics and non-existent mortality ready to prey on folks trying to get ahead that it's even more difficult than it should be.

I have a friend in Los Angeles whose income has ranged from lower middle class all the way up to six figures over the years, but he and his family have lived in the same beat-up apartment for nearly 25 years now.

Los Angeles is just the best example of what's happening here, and it isn't just about the rich and the poor anymore. The rich have sailed so far beyond what even the middle class can imagine that the middle class itself is suffering.

Steve Martin's producer character sums it up in "Grand Canyon:"

"The point is there's a gulf in this country; an ever-widening abyss between the people who have stuff, and the people who don't have shit. It's like this big hole in the ground, as big as the fucking Grand Canyon, and what's come pouring out is an eruption of rage, and the rage creates violence, and the violence is real."

When I was in my teens in the 1960s, it was still a big deal to be a millionaire. I think there was maybe one billionaire in the U.S.

In 2013, Forbes magazine said there were 442 billionaires in this country, and that number keeps growing. Something like nine of every 10 dollars of new wealth in our country is going straight to the top.

That can't continue. If you keep attacking the middle class, eventually even the most passive people will strike back.

Of course, by that time the gap may be less like the Grand Canyon and more like the Pacific Ocean.