Bernie's Billionaire Bashing!

Last edited Sun Feb 14, 2016, 09:43 PM - Edit history (1)

Here's a serious question. How many of our social/political/economic woes is Bernie's favorite piñata, the billionaire class, officially responsible for in the Sanders lexicon of blame?

I've got no brief for the billionaire class. I do have to admit that I wouldn't complain if somebody dropped a few billions on me and made me one of them. But I'm just not sure that they are the only villains worth fighting or how many of our many woes they are directly to blame for. Sanders actually seems to hate the whole class of them. And he seems to believe they are by far the largest (domestic) enemy we face.

Maybe he's right.

And while we are at it, I wonder whether we are talking the global billionaire class or just the American billionaire class? Rein in the American billionaires and you still got global international capital -- which is no doubt wreaking havoc worldwide, including right here in the good ole USA -- to contend with.

I know he thinks the American Billionaire class is definitely responsible for rigging the overall economy. And I think he thinks that they mostly own the US government. The United States Senate, House and Presidency as wholly owned subsidiaries of Corporate America.

Some truth to that, I think. But is it the whole truth? Or the main truth?

According to Sanders they are supposed to be responsible for the fact that we don't have single payer health insurance. The drug companies and the insurance companies are, of course, card carrying members of the billionaire class.

But what about the hospitals and doctors? Are they and their lobbies part of the problem too? He doesn't rail against them much. So who knows.

Its less clear to me whether it's the billionaire class that is supposed to be responsible for mass incarceration. Personally, I tend to blame white people at large and their fear of the black other for that one. I don't think it was the billionaires who insisted for decade after decade that politicians be "tough on crime." But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the billionaires are after all that cheap prison labor.

What about the "problem" of illegal immigration and open borders? Here too, I'm not so sure our problems can be laid at the feet of the billionaire class. Ask yourself whether it's closed borders or open borders that serve the interest of the billionaire class. You would think open borders -- cause, you know, more cheap labor, and all. So I doubt that the xenophobia with which illegal immigrants are too often greeted and the politics of it can be laid at the feet of the billionaire class.

How about the endurance of racism and police brutality? Or sexism and the glass ceiling? Our crumbling and decayed public infrastructure? Our abandoned cities, our desolated rural landscape, our dysfunctional (for too many) public schools? Can that be laid at the feet of the billionaire class?

Maybe some of it -- especially the desolation of public infrastructure, rural American -- cause, you know, global capitalism, agribusiness, capital moving around the at the speed of light. That kind of stuff take livelihoods with it in the blink of an eye. That kind of stuff enriching those over here, while impoverishing those over there, with a brutal and indifferent efficiency.

Tough stuff. One of the biggest challenges of the 21st Century. Not sure how to stop it. Because this is a really, really hard problem. Way more difficult than saying "Main street bailed out wall street, time for wall street to bail out main street." a la Sanders. Way more difficult than "breaking down all the barriers" al la Clinton too.

But even given the partly destructive force of global international capitalism, and the havoc it has wreaked on the American landscape -- I doubt it's just the billionaire class that's responsible for all of our decay.

I mean even billionaires have to live and work and do business somewhere. They have to draw workers from somewhere. They have to ship resources here and there. So you would think they would want a highly efficient infrastructure, a highly educated workers and all that jazz. That argues for a lot of public investment in things that we haven't been investing much in for a very long time. Who exactly is to blame for that lack of investment? If it's really the billionaire class that is blocking that investment, then, well they are just stupid and working contrary to their extended self-interest, aren't they?