Major Study Finds The US Is An Oligarchy

[ZiprHead]

http://www.businessinsider.com/major-study-finds-that-the-us-is-an-oligarchy-2014-4

After sifting through nearly 1,800 U.S. policies enacted in that period and comparing them to the expressed preferences of average Americans (50th percentile of income), affluent Americans (90th percentile), and large special interests groups, researchers concluded that the U.S. is dominated by its economic elite.

 

[untermensche]

This is old news.

And it is news that will not appear in the corporate mass media.

Owned by members of the oligarchy.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

Who didn't know this already? And how did they fund the study?

 

[braces_for_impact]

This is old news.

And it is news that will not appear in the corporate mass media.

Owned by members of the oligarchy.

While I acknowledge that mainstream corporate media does ignore certain topics, and that mass ownership of the media IS a problem, this just isn't true, That same study or a similar topic was written about on Vox, BBC, The New Yorker, MSNBC, and so on.

 

[untermensche]

Only MSNBC would qualify as US mass media.

How was the story presented on MSNBC?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Is there a country for which this isn't true?

 

[Tristan Scott]

The US was pretty much set up to be that way by the founding fathers, recall that the Senate was originally meant to be similar to the British House of Lords. Senators being appointed rather than elected.

I think the system was recognized as unsustainable as we moved into the Industrial Revolution towards the end of the 19th c. At that point a vast majority of the nation's wealth was controlled by only a few. It was unsustainable because markets were stymied due to all the wealth being concentrated in only a few hands. Anti-Trust legislation helped but didn't go deep enough to solve the real problem. In 1913, in a move to re-didtribute the wealth of the country the Government instituted a progressive tax on income that was devised in such a way that the wealthy were incentivized to put a large portion of their earnings back into the system by a code that allowed for targeted loop-holes designed for that purpose. (This was the 16th amendment, followed a few months later with the 17th which required popular elections for senators.)

Unfortunately this system was done away with in 1987 when the Republicans revamped the tax codes. They gained support in this move with propaganda complaining about rich people being able to write off as business expenses, 3 martini lunches and purchasing expensive cars and trips. Sounded unfair, but in reality it was doing what it was designed to do and that was put the money back into the economy instead of the wealthy persons bank account.

So here we are, back where we were with mega billionaires controlling not only the wealth but by pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the Republican Party and their allies in the media. Now with the election of Donald Trump they have cemented their power by his court appointments. They've already limited Citizens United (2014) and they began dismantling Dodd Frank this year.

 

[braces_for_impact]

Only MSNBC would qualify as US mass media.

How was the story presented on MSNBC?

I know BBC is British, I guess some would consider VOX not mainstream, more blog. Anyway, I saw it virtually everywhere some time ago, except I don't remember seeing it on FOX of course, but I rarely pay any attention to FOX anyway. The Washington Times had it as well. Here is the MSNBC link.

 

[untermensche]

Only MSNBC would qualify as US mass media.

How was the story presented on MSNBC?

I know BBC is British, I guess some would consider VOX not mainstream, more blog. Anyway, I saw it virtually everywhere some time ago, except I don't remember seeing it on FOX of course, but I rarely pay any attention to FOX anyway. The Washington Times had it as well. Here is the MSNBC link.

Did they talk about it as if it were a crisis?

“The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence,”

This is tyranny.