Bernie Is Right: Extreme Wealth Concentration Has Turned America Into an Oligarchy

[Uncle Joe]

Last summer, Bernie Sanders’s YouTube channel released a short clip entitled simply “Oligarchy or democracy?” Featuring compiled footage spanning Sanders’s career in both the House and Senate, the clip opens with the simple declaration, “Those who have the money have the power.” It’s a simple, and in many ways obvious truth. But it’s also one that sometimes gets ignored or marginalized in mainstream discourse about democracy. Threats to democracy, of course, don’t always directly involve questions of money or wealth. From attacks on voting rights to political institutions designed to protect minority rule, racism is a major factor as well. But, between dark money and unrestrained campaign donations, the noxious imprint of concentrated wealth is rarely far from sight.

(snip)

Between 1989 to 2019, the CBO reports, the total real wealth (adjusted for inflation) held by all families in the United States tripled from $38 trillion in 2019 dollars to $115 trillion — or about five times the national GDP. The fruits of that growth, however, have accrued heavily to those at the top. As of 2019, the richest 10 percent of families held an astonishing 72 percent of this wealth, while those in the top 1 percent held more than one-third. The appalling asymmetry of these developments is underscored even more strongly by the CBO’s findings vis-à-vis the bottom half of all American families — who now hold a mere 2 percent of the country’s total wealth. There is a strong racial bias as well, with the median wealth of white families considerably higher than that of black or hispanic ones.



But it’s ultimately the case that concentrated wealth threatens democracy regardless of whether such avenues legally exist for the rich to influence political life or not. For basic moral reasons, America’s current wealth distribution would not suddenly become acceptable if the top 1 percent had fewer direct ways to exert such influence. More to the point, those who have money still have both more power and liberty regardless of whether they actively try to influence political outcomes. Money buys access, true. But it also buys the freedom to live a healthy, dignified, and comfortable life, and plenty more besides. Thanks to the obscene hoarding of wealth by an ever diminishing sliver of Americans, that freedom is increasingly a privilege enjoyed by only a small few — who, with each passing year, wield even greater power over politics and society.

Bernie is right: America is becoming an oligarchy in which the collective abundance of the many is increasingly held by the few. And, until the power of that oligarchy is broken, its democracy will remain more of an ideal than a reality.

https://jacobin.com/2022/10/bernie-sanders-wealth-concentration-oligarchy-democracy

[Kid Berwyn]

1. The Ownership got richer during COVID.

Old Money and Petrodollars own our media and a big chunk of Washington.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

2. Ogliarchy

Is the result of capitalism.

Capitalists goal is to get more money and power. Greed.


Greed is not a pro social value and a bad thing to base an economy on. In fact its fucking stupid if you ask me. A flaw that ensures the poorest suffer.

Yet people resist understanding this fact and attack the questioner instead of imagining an alternative to capitalism.

[slightlv]

4. Capitalism by itself, like Communism, is stupid.

Well-regulated capitalism (without all the loopholes) I have very little issue with; although I might have issue with some rules. Overall, as long as it's regulated towards the common good, then I do believe it's one of the best systems overall. In this country, "well regulated" is a dirty word. And, what it truly would say of this country if it were well-regulated is that we would be a Social Democracy, which is what we -should- be if we truly want to see all segments of the country participate and feel empowered.

However, like I said, "well-regulated" is one of the ultimate dirty words to a Republican and to a Libertarian. Social democracy is akin to Socialism as far as Repugs and their minions are concerned. Oligarchs want none of it because it diminishes there wealth and power. I see no way out unless and until we have Presidents in place like we had in the old days... Roosevelt, Truman, even LBJ... who push these programs and rules through, and have the democratic caucuses to back them up. If we don't find a way to do it, I fear we'll all end up serfs, which seems to be about the time-frame (15th and 16th century) the Repugs and their Xtianist friends want this country (if not the world) to regress towards.

I wish I were 30 or 40 years younger than I am now, just so my body and spirit could fight this fight, as much as I did the Civil Rights Era in the 60's and 70's. But it'll be my grandkids who'll end up fighting this fight, I'm afraid.