The Plutocratic States of America

A man standing on the bank of a river watches a man in a canoe go by and exclaims, “Boy is he rich.”  The man in the canoe sees another man in a 16’ open-fisherman and proclaims that man to be wealthy.  The man in the open-fisherman heads out to sea and spies a 34’ cabin cruiser and dreams of the wealth of the owner of that magnificent craft.  The cabin cruiser owner is sitting at the stern of his boat (he has a captain of course) and sees that he is about to be overtaken by a 95’ mega-yacht and wonders if that owner is sitting in his air-conditioned salon being served cocktails and hors d'oeuvres by his steward.  He too dreams of being truly wealthy like that lucky mega-yacht owner.

Plutocracy is from the Greek ploutokratia or government by the rich, 
from ploutos wealth + -kratia rule, power.

You see, it’s all a matter of perception, or the size of your boat (or canoe or shoes) to keep the metaphor going.  Here, in the wonderful PSA, most people dream of more and more and, you get my drift.  The man in the mega-yacht can’t even see the man on the riverbank but he knows he exists and feels better about himself accordingly.  The wealthy are only wealthy if they feel wealthy by comparison with others who are less fortunate.

Median Household Income 2010-2014

The mega-rich need to not only maintain their status as very wealthy Americans but they need to increase the financial distance between themselves and those “poorer-than-me” folks behind them.  This “financial gap” needs to be ever widened for the truly wealthy to realize any progress in their status.  You see, it is not just about the dollars but also, perhaps more importantly, about the power and control that are needed to expand that gap.

The people in this rarified atmosphere of wealth and power have been referred to as the top 1/10^th of one percent.  How much money is that?  Well, that actual dollar figure is hard to ascertain because while you and I file an income tax return with rather easily traceable sources like wages, interest on savings, and dividends on investments, the very wealthy are a bit more difficult to track.  By one estimate the top one percent of Americans own almost 40% of everything.  That same analysis states that the top 0.1% is represented by about 16,000 families with around $6 trillion in assets.  This would mean that these families have assets equivalent to two thirds of the rest of America.  In 2011, PolitiFact indicated that the top 400 wealthiest Americans have over half of all the wealth in the US.

Not Since the Roaring 20's Has the Concentration of Wealth Been So Lopsided

US wage earners, who may have highly skilled jobs, could soon find that their skills are no longer needed because globalization and technology have put them in direct competition with lower paid workers in foreign economies.  These same individuals may find that not only have their jobs been lost but their life saving may be destroyed by these same economic changes.  Workers in the US that lack the education, training, or skills needed in the new technology driven economy, will see their wages decline or disappear entirely as mechanisation and developing world labor competition take their toll.  Political job creation promises will not be enough to undo the damage done by these global market forces.

This article is not about begrudging the very wealthy their ownership of a disproportionate share of assets.  That is, after all the American way of life, aka The American Dream.  I will however challenge this group when they try to widen the financial gap by taking even more from the rest of us by controlling our government.  I will resist when they try to degrade the quality of our health care (already in deplorable condition based on what we currently spend) and try to attack Social Security as an un-earned charity.  I will call them out when they improve their status by degrading the quality of our educational system.  I will again be upset when they get richer through tax breaks for their brethren while shifting the burden to the other 99.9% of us.  I will express outrage when they feign that our military needs even more money while our infrastructure deteriorates at an alarming rate.  I will sound the alarm when they literally blow smoke up our collective asses claiming that climate change is a hoax.  I will challenge them when they offer false promises of new jobs and other societal benefits if we will make concessions where they benefit.  Trickle down economics is just that, a TRICK-le.  The emphasis here is on the TRICK.

Citizens United Decision Tips the Scales

Education or lack thereof is used to control the financial gap.  Wealthy individuals make sure their children are afforded the benefits of a much better than average education.  Prestigious preschools, private middle and high schools, and private colleges all help ensure that wealthy children will be members of the wealthy elite when they graduate.  At the same time, they fight any attempt to better the education of the rest of our society.  Financially starve public education and then offer charter schools as an answer to the problem created by the now deteriorating public schools.  A win-win where education suffers and a few charter school owners can make a fast buck.

Ours is no longer a democracy.  Ours is now a plutocracy where our society is ruled by the small minority of our wealthiest citizens.  While the collapse of the Soviet Union in December of 1991 spawned the creation and expansion of the Russian oligarchy, it was perhaps Citizens United v. FEC on January 21, 2010, that provided the final nail in the coffin of our already failing democracy.  Prior to Citizens United, influential-level campaign donations by the wealthiest among us, was restricted to quasi-legal and illegal activities. 

[Note that you may click on any graphic to enlarge for detail.]

Election Spending Pre and Post Citizens United 2010 Decision

Jeffrey A. Winters, a political scientist at Northwestern University, wrote that, "oligarchy and democracy operate within a single system, and American politics is a daily display of their interplay."  Former president Jimmy Carter has stated that the United States is now “an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery,” as a result of the Citizens United decision, which removed most restrictions of political donations.

Does anyone of sound mind have any doubt that money can buy legislative access.  This is not a partisan issue.  Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike, benefit financially from their time in office.  The net worth of our congress increases by an amount that far exceeds their salaries.  We are a nation governed by wealthy individuals who are in turn made richer by even wealthier individuals and corporations.  The chart below covers the top 20 congressional leaders who have seen their net worth skyrocket while in office.  The figures shown are annual averages.  You may want to know that the average salary of our congressional leaders is $174,000. plus benefits.  How several of these individuals have had increases in the millions is of some interest.  It must be the "benefits".

Top 20  Members of Congress with Annual  Average Increases in Wealth 2012
Note that Ms Pingree (top) was due to marriage

It should be clear here that the Citizens United decision needs to be overturned.  The inalienable rights of our Constitution belong to We the People and not to corporations and labor unions.  Money should never be equated or confused with the right to free speech.  The old joke about the Golden Rule where he who has the gold gets to make the rules is just that, a joke.

Whoever Has The Gold Makes The Rules

While we are led to believe in the democracy created by our Constitution, we are unduly influenced by the power of political spending.  Gerrymandering of voter districts and restrictive election laws are all designed to control the outcomes of elections.  Seemingly unlimited spending on outrageous attack ads during the days leading up to a vote are all paid for by deep-pocketed individuals and corporations who will benefit from the outcome.  It would be easy to blame the un/under-educated for their malleability when it comes to the political rhetoric that besieges us daily, but I have witnessed individuals with advanced degrees spouting easily discredited political bullshit.  Ignorance in such cases is voluntary.

The Wealthy in Control of Government