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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Richest 0.01 Percent of Americans Gave 42 Percent of Political Donations in 2012
Source: Alternet/Daily Kos
Forget the top one percent, the top 0.01 percent of Americans gave nearly 42 percent of all political donation dollars in the 2012 election cycle. Just over 30,000 individuals contributed nearly half of all money. It is no coincidence that this proportion has increased steadily as economic inequality has increased. In 1990 when I was born, the figure was just under 13 percent. If we expanded the scope to the full one percent, you can be damn sure they gave the overwhelming majority of dollars in recent years.
Candidates devote 80 percent of their time to begging rich people for money. Any extremist Republican can get a billionaire sugar daddy. The world's eighth richest man can summon the entire Republican primary field to kiss his ring. Millionaires are now complaining about being ignored in favor of billionaires. The average member of Congress is a millionaire.
It should come as no surprise that policymakers look after the ultra-wealthy instead of the rest of us. This trend of increasing economic and political inequality shows no sign of abating. Inequality is incompatible with democracy and it has created a plutocracy. Republicans like Marco Rubio are even proposing abolishing capital gains taxes in an all-out assault on those who actually earn their income.
Read more: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/richest-001-percent-americans-gave-42-percent-political-donations-2012
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The Richest 0.01 Percent of Americans Gave 42 Percent of Political Donations in 2012 (Original Post)
demmiblue
Apr 2015
OP
66 dmhlt
(1,941 posts)1. That's a VERY frightening statistic
appalachiablue
(41,132 posts)2. Agree. The deck is stacked, and the game is rigged as Warren says.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)3. Ya gotta invest millions, if you wanna make billions.
Wall Street on the Potomac says it's all legal like. Too bad about Democracy. Overrated, the Buy Partisan say.
Autumn
(45,084 posts)5. It's a rigged game. They sure have gotten good value for the pittance they have spent
buying these politicians.