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Could Occupy Wall Street make a comeback because of an advice column?

(The Associated Press)

Slate's Dear Prudence advice column, with its discussion of straightforward, everyday problems, isn't known for kicking up social-media firestorms. Until now, that is, after a wealthy advice seeker writing to Prudie has shown us that the divide between the one percent and everyone else is even greater than we thought.

The writer, who claims to live in "one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country," dreads Halloween. Here's why: "Kids arrive in overflowing cars from less fortunate areas. I feel this is inappropriate. Halloween isn't a social service or a charity in which I have to buy candy for less fortunate children."

The question for Prudence: "Should Halloween be a neighborhood activity, or is it legitimately a free-for-all in which people hunt down the best candy grounds for their kids?"

The response on social media has been dramatic and visceral. "Seriously, what's wrong with people??" one person wrote on Facebook. Another called the advice seeker a "horrible disgrace of a woman."

Could this person writing to Prudie be for real? Are there actually people like this in the world? It's so out there that it feels like an election stunt.

For her part, Slate's Prudie -- actually, she's Emily Yoffee -- responds with force. "Your whine makes me kind of wish that people from the actual poor side of town come this year not with scary costumes but with real pitchforks," she writes. "Stop being callous and miserly and go to Costco, you cheapskate, and get enough candy to fill the bags of the kids who come one day a year to marvel at how the 1 percent live."

Prudie has certainly hit upon a hot-button issue, one that first burst into the public consciousness with the Occupy Wall Street movement. For many readers of the advice column, this one wealthy Halloween miser represents rising income inequality in this country, which is at its highest level since the Great Depression. The Occupy movement has settled down over the past year or so, but its issue hasn't gone away. The Atlantic has just asked, "Does inequality cause crime?" The answer is yes, the magazine writes, and more so than ever because the wealthy are "flaunting their riches" more than ever.

Forbes gets even starker, insisting that Ebola is "inequality's new gift." This argument, believe it or not, actually relates to the Prudence column. Forbes' Erik Sherman argues that the Ebola crisis got out of control in Africa as a result of the West's indifference: "Because one of the underlying causes of income inequality is a lack of empathy."

So Prudence, with a column that hits us right in the gut, has kicked the debate about income inequality into the spotlight. It might be too late in the game for inequality to be a key issue in next month's midterm election, but it wouldn't be a surprise if all of the potential 2016 presidential candidates suddenly decide to become regular readers of Dear Prudence.

-- Douglas Perry