The Rule of the Rich

Now, most people know what plutocracy is: the rule of the rich, political power controlled by the wealthy. Plutocracy is not an American word and wasn’t meant to become an American phenomenon—some of our founders deplored what they called “the veneration of wealth.” But plutocracy is here, and a pumped up Citigroup even boasted of coining a variation on the word—“plutonomy,” which describes an economic system where the privileged few make sure the rich get richer and that government helps them do it. Five years ago, Citigroup decided the time had come to “bang the drum on plutonomy.”

And bang they did. Here are some excerpts from the document “Revisiting Plutonomy”:

“Asset booms, a rising profit share, and favorable treatment by market-friendly governments have allowed the rich to prosper . . . take an increasing share of income and wealth over the last twenty years. . . . The top 10 percent, particularly the top 1 percent of the United States—the plutonomists in our parlance—have benefited disproportionately from the recent productivity surge in the U.S. . . . from globalization and the productivity boom, at the relative expense of labor. . . . are likely to get even wealthier in the coming years. Because the dynamics of plutonomy are still intact.”

I’ll repeat that: “The dynamics of plutonomy are still intact.”

That was the case before the Great Collapse of 2008, and it’s the case today, two years after the catastrophe. But the plutonomists are doing just fine. Even better in some cases, thanks to our bailout of the big banks. (To see just how our system was rigged by the financial, political, and university elites, run, don’t walk, to the theater nearest you showing Charles Ferguson’s new film, Inside Job. Take a handkerchief because you’ll weep for the republic.)

As for the rest of the country, listen to this summary in The Economist—no Marxist journal—of a study by Pew Research: “More than half of all workers today have experienced a spell of unemployment, taken a cut in pay or hours or been forced to go part-time. . . . Fewer than half of all adults expect their children to have a higher standard of living than theirs, and more than a quarter say it will be lower. For many Americans, the Great Recession has been the sharpest trauma since the Second World War, wiping out jobs, wealth, and hope itself.”

Let that sink in: For millions of garden-variety Americans, the audacity of hope has been replaced by a paucity of hope.

Plutocracy and democracy don’t mix. Plutocracy too long tolerated leaves democracy on the auction block, subject to the highest bidder.

Socrates said to understand a thing, you must first name it. The name for what’s happening to our political system is corruption: a deep, systemic corruption.

Link: http://www.progressive.org/moyers0211.html

just to keep them going.

Almost every day there are plain, trucks in their driveway doing various things for them. Some involve house cleaning, picking up every leaf/twig on their huge lawn, sweeping their 200+' driveway, plowing it as soon as a snowflake falls.

Then every day a nurse leaves their house which is odd because they all seem pretty young, very active and healthy.

In the summer private coaches come and tutor their kids in the finer aspects of sports.

And I'm here counting my pennies and cutting coupons. Its hard not to be jealous.

Don't know how they got in here.





/sarcasm