Ultimately gross inequality can be
fatal to civilization. The wealthy can now anonymously use unlimited campaign donations to influence policy and elections. This is leading to only wealthy individuals having meaningful participation in our government, the definition of plutocracy. Simply put, plutocracy and democracy don’t mix. Plutocracy too long tolerated leaves
democracy on the auction block, subject to the highest bidder.
“There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money and I can’t remember what
the second one is.” ~ Hanna
Money buys
power, and the increasing wealth of a tiny minority has effectively bought the
allegiance of one of our two major political parties, in the process destroying
any prospect for cooperation. The
average income of Americans increased just $303 dollars in 28 years. That’s wage repression. There you see the two Americas - A buoyant Wall Street
and a doleful Main Street.
In 2011 we realized our real
enemies are not robots, but multinational corporations, who have declared war
on democracy. In 1981 Ronald
Reagan became President and “Reaganomics” became the dominant ideology. At the
forefront of this philosophy were three malignant notions: helping the rich get
richer would inevitably help everyone else, “a rising tide lifts all boats;”
markets were inherently self correcting and there was no need for government
regulation; and the U.S. did not need an economic strategy because of the
“free” market. Like humanoid robots, corporations have
no conscience — they are programmed to achieve their objectives no matter the
consequences to humans or the planet.
Although Mayan kings on the Yucatan peninsula could
see their forests vanishing and their hills eroding, they were able to insulate
themselves from the rest of society. By extracting wealth from commoners, they
could remain well-fed while everyone else was slowly starving. Realizing too
late that they could not reverse their deteriorating environment, they became
casualties of their own privilege.
A relatively few Americans are buying our
democracy as never before. And they’re doing it completely in secret. We’re back to the late 19th century when the
lackeys of robber barons literally deposited sacks of cash on the desks of friendly legislators.
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