The US Oligarchy

[untermensche]

What? Anybody can be corrupt.

The problem is not human corruption.

The problem is systems that allow corruption.

Or worse systems like the US election system that is entirely dependent on corruption.

It is possible to devise less corrupt systems than systems that require huge amounts of money to run for office and moneyed interests to have access with preferential lobbying for the rich.

 

[Underseer]

How do I become one of these oligarchs?

I have a job that pays enough for the Democrats to think I'm rich, but I never get called to any meetings to decide the fate of the country or anything.

How dare those evil libtards criticize the elites! You go an put those dirty commies in their place! If you don't defend the elites, who will?

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

What? Anybody can be corrupt.

Anybody can be corrupt, but wealth both encourages corruption and allows the corrupt to do more damage.

 

[dismal]

How do I become one of these oligarchs?

I have a job that pays enough for the Democrats to think I'm rich, but I never get called to any meetings to decide the fate of the country or anything.

How dare those evil libtards criticize the elites! You go an put those dirty commies in their place! If you don't defend the elites, who will?

Wait, I thought the elite were libtards.

Is all this stuff I keep hearing about how all the rich people are Democrats fake news?

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

What if all news is fake news???????

 

[dismal]

What if all news is fake news???????

Well, here we learned that

a) Nancy Pelosi is not part of the ruling oligarchy
b) Nancy Pelosi is part of the ruling oligarchy

It seems like one of these must be real news. Depending on one's definition of "news" I guess.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

What if all news is fake news???????

Well, here we learned that

a) Nancy Pelosi is not part of the ruling oligarchy
b) Nancy Pelosi is part of the ruling oligarchy

It seems like one of these must be real news. Depending on one's definition of "news" I guess.

False dichotomy. What if there are two Nancy Pelosis?????????

 

[scombrid]

I see Trump as no less corrupt or self interested than other politicians, but I see him waking a lot of people all across America to becoming politically active.

If nothing else, Trump is a demonstration that American Democracy isnt completely dead and that the people have a voice and can shake things up and derail the establishment insiders.

I don't agree with Trump's policies, but I am encouraged by his being elected over the establishment choices. It means the oligarchs haven't totally locked you down. It means you can still rise up. I suggest you do so while you still can.

Scott Pruitt, Ajit Pai, Mick Mulvaney, Cohn, etc...

Trump is the best thing the oligarchy could have ever wanted.

 

[Elixir]

Before Trump I would have said things will never improve and just take a similar path in history exactly as took place with the Roman senate.

But Trump gives me hope now. Who else would be taking on a huge corporation like Amazon right now?

Are you fucking blind??? Trump is not "taking on Amazon", he's simply trying to punish one individual (Bezos) for saying true things about him in WaPo. And it's working - he lies about the rates that Amazon pays the Post Office (same as every other bulk customer), and Bezos loses billions on paper, overnight. Abuse of power, plain and simple.
And he's punishing his own base with his self-indulgent threats of trade wars - which he will lose because of his ignorance that let him turn his back on the opportunity to gain allies for dealing with China. And any Rethuglican would be happy to give the middle class a $1.50/week raise in order to steal $1,500,000,000,000.00 from the next generation and put $1,250,000,000,00.00 of it into the pockets of himself and his closest buddies.

Not your average McCain, Romney, Bush, Hillary politician thats for sure. He's a whole hell of a lot worse than any of them.

 

[dismal]

I see Trump as no less corrupt or self interested than other politicians, but I see him waking a lot of people all across America to becoming politically active.

If nothing else, Trump is a demonstration that American Democracy isnt completely dead and that the people have a voice and can shake things up and derail the establishment insiders.

I don't agree with Trump's policies, but I am encouraged by his being elected over the establishment choices. It means the oligarchs haven't totally locked you down. It means you can still rise up. I suggest you do so while you still can.

Scott Pruitt, Ajit Pai, Mick Mulvaney, Cohn, etc...

Trump is the best thing the oligarchy could have ever wanted.

And yet the Kennedys, Rockefellers and Heinzs-Kerryses don't seem pleased.

 

[SimpleDon]

Will anything ever be done about? If so, how and when?
Will the US ever have nice things such as universal healthcare?
I am beginning to think the answer to both questions is no, and
and our oligarchy via campaign bribery and other skeezy influences
will have no end other than total collapse or oppression for everyone in the
US who is not at least upper middle class, I just don't see any signs of
change or its prerequisites at all(like large sustained protest).

It wouldn't change as long as there isn't a counterforce to the ideas,

1. that the poor deserve to be poor because they are congenitally unfit or because they are lazy or because they are poor parents, etc.
2. that the economy as it is currently formed is somehow "natural" and to interfere with it by redistribution is risky.
3. that the government is evil and everything that they do just proves their incompetence, we should run government like a business.
4. that regulations choke business growth and impede the overall economy.
5. that the poor need the incentive of lower incomes and poverty to better themselves while the rich need ever-higher incomes to provide their incentive to work.
6. that we should be working toward free trade and the free market because they would be somehow better in a way that never has to be explained.
7. that public debt is built up by overly generous and ultimately unsustainable social programs, endowments, that our children will have to pay back.
8. that private debt is a personal weakness that doesn't impact the economy because we owe this money to each other, it all cancels out.
9. that the for-profit private sector is always the best, most economical way to accomplish anything.
10. that unions destroy the freedom to work and should be suppressed and impeded wherever possible.
11. that the minimum wage destroys jobs because the lower wages are the more workers will be hired.
12. that deflation is good because it increases the value of money.
13. that free trade is good because it lowers the prices that all of us pay for goods which boosts the economy.
14. that the economy is a zero-sum game, for someone to get ahead someone has to be held back.
15. that the financial sector is inherently stable and self-regulating and doesn't require any government regulations to operate.
16. that investment drives the modern economy and that to grow the economy we need to increase the money available for investment.
17. that lowering taxes on high incomes increases the money available for investment and grows the economy.
18. that the main purpose of the economy is to generate profits for owners and shareholders.
19. that corporations are people with the rights of people, and are responsible for the decisions made, not the management of the corporation.
20. that innovation is the providence of the individual and everything we do to strengthen the collective diminishes the individual and innovation.
21. that profits aren't a cost of production when we talk about the price of goods but are a cost of production when we talk about what is needed to sustain the economy.
22. that inflation is evil because it devalues money except, of course when the increased prices are in stocks, bonds and real estate, the inflation that we call capital gains.

All of the above are demonstrably wrong. But hardly a day goes by without one of the intelligent posters on these pages repeating one or more of them. These points are often attributed to Econ 101, economics that is so obvious that it doesn't have to be supported by attributing it to anyone or supported by logic because it is what everyone knows. And every one of the points above when put into practice as policy increases the incomes of the modern American oligarchy. In my mind, this is not a coincidence, because the oligarchy controls the public discussion of the economy. The economists realize that the points above are wrong but they are reluctant to rock the boat of the popular discussion because the oligarchy controls the money that pays for the chairs of economics in universities, that pays for economics research and the oligarchy hires the economists graduating from the economics schools.

 

[Elixir]

Will anything ever be done about? If so, how and when?
Will the US ever have nice things such as universal healthcare?
I am beginning to think the answer to both questions is no, and
and our oligarchy via campaign bribery and other skeezy influences
will have no end other than total collapse or oppression for everyone in the
US who is not at least upper middle class, I just don't see any signs of
change or its prerequisites at all(like large sustained protest).

It wouldn't change as long as there isn't a counterforce to the ideas,

1. that the poor deserve to be poor because they are congenitally unfit or because they are lazy or because they are poor parents, etc.
2. that the economy as it is currently formed is somehow "natural" and to interfere with it by redistribution is risky.
3. that the government is evil and everything that they do just proves their incompetence, we should run government like a business.
4. that regulations choke business growth and impede the overall economy.
5. that the poor need the incentive of lower incomes and poverty to better themselves while the rich need ever-higher incomes to provide their incentive to work.
6. that we should be working toward free trade and the free market because they would be somehow better in a way that never has to be explained.
7. that public debt is built up by overly generous and ultimately unsustainable social programs, endowments, that our children will have to pay back.
8. that private debt is a personal weakness that doesn't impact the economy because we owe this money to each other, it all cancels out.
9. that the for-profit private sector is always the best, most economical way to accomplish anything.
10. that unions destroy the freedom to work and should be suppressed and impeded wherever possible.
11. that the minimum wage destroys jobs because the lower wages are the more workers will be hired.
12. that deflation is good because it increases the value of money.
13. that free trade is good because it lowers the prices that all of us pay for goods which boosts the economy.
14. that the economy is a zero-sum game, for someone to get ahead someone has to be held back.
15. that the financial sector is inherently stable and self-regulating and doesn't require any government regulations to operate.
16. that investment drives the modern economy and that to grow the economy we need to increase the money available for investment.
17. that lowering taxes on high incomes increases the money available for investment and grows the economy.
18. that the main purpose of the economy is to generate profits for owners and shareholders.
19. that corporations are people with the rights of people, and are responsible for the decisions made, not the management of the corporation.
20. that innovation is the providence of the individual and everything we do to strengthen the collective diminishes the individual and innovation.
21. that profits aren't a cost of production when we talk about the price of goods but are a cost of production when we talk about what is needed to sustain the economy.
22. that inflation is evil because it devalues money except, of course when the increased prices are in stocks, bonds and real estate, the inflation that we call capital gains.

All of the above are demonstrably wrong. But hardly a day goes by without one of the intelligent posters on these pages repeating one or more of them. These points are often attributed to Econ 101, economics that is so obvious that it doesn't have to be supported by attributing it to anyone or supported by logic because it is what everyone knows. And every one of the points above when put into practice as policy increases the incomes of the modern American oligarchy. In my mind, this is not a coincidence, because the oligarchy controls the public discussion of the economy. The economists realize that the points above are wrong but they are reluctant to rock the boat of the popular discussion because the oligarchy controls the money that pays for the chairs of economics in universities, that pays for economics research and the oligarchy hires the economists graduating from the economics schools.

Good post, especially:

that corporations are people with the rights of people

Fix that, and a lot of the rest would follow.

 

[whollygoats]

I concur.

 

[Horatio Parker]

That's why I yammer on about MMT.