What’s at Stake This Election Year? Ending the Vicious Cycle of Wealth and Power
By Robert Reich
Whats at stake this election year? Let me put as directly as I can.
America has succumbed to a vicious cycle in which great wealth translates into political power, which generates even more wealth, and even more power.
This spiral is most apparent is declining tax rates on corporations and on top personal incomes (much in the form of wider tax loopholes), along with a profusion of government bailouts and subsidies (to Wall Street bankers, hedge-fund partners, oil companies, casino tycoons, and giant agribusiness owners, among others).
The vicious cycle of wealth and power is less apparent, but even more significant, in economic rules that now favor the wealthy.
Billionaires like Donald Trump can use bankruptcy to escape debts but average people cant get relief from burdensome mortgage or student debt payments.
Giant corporations can amass market power without facing antitrust lawsuits (think Internet cable companies, Monsanto, Big Pharma, consolidations of health insurers and of health care corporations, Dow and DuPont, and the growing dominance of Amazon, Apple, and Google, for example).
But average workers have lost the market power that came from joining together in unions.
more
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/whats_at_stake_this_election_year_end_vicious_cycle_of_wealth_20160103
And yes, he does get to Bernie...