Is America A Plutocracy?

[sleigh]

On the heels of the tax cut extensions comes an interesting article by Francis Fukuyama, which muses on why there has not been a populist push from the Left regarding the increasing disparity between the very wealthy and the rest of us...

We therefore raise a different and more interesting set of questions regarding the relationship between money and power in contemporary America. All these questions come together, however, in a paramount puzzle: Why has a significant increase in income inequality in recent decades failed to generate political pressure from the left for redistributional redress, as similar trends did in earlier times? Instead, insofar as there is any populism bubbling from below in America today it comes from the Right, and its target is not just the “undeserving rich”—Wall Street “flip-it” shysters and their ilk—but, even more so, government policies intended to protect Americans from their predations. How do we explain this?

I wonder if the primary cause issn't the lingering belief in the American myth of "upward mobility" -- that with sufficient hard work and effort, anyone from any background in America is able to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" and become one of those very rich themselves.

What are your thoughts?

Comments

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

"The belief in the American myth of "upward mobility" -- that with sufficient hard work and effort, anyone from any background in America is able to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" and become one of those very rich themselves."

It explains trailer park Republicans supporting measures that mainly benefit the ultra rich. When their ship finally comes in, and it will!, they want to be able to keep all of it.

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

That's the only reason I can think of why people who aren't rich seem to be so protective of their privileges. They think they're going to be in that position someday.

Me, I'll be glad to pay lots of taxes when I'm rich. *g*

[joecrow.livejournal.com]

Several generations of sustained memetic immunization to both the idea of socialism and the tools of social justice have left the general American populace nearly incapable of seeing what's been done to them, let alone doing anything to stop it. We, as a people, have been taught to fundamentally incapable of acting as a group in our own economic interest, or even perceiving that economic interest. The Red Scares, the Cold War, the Horatio Alger schtick, "better dead than Red"; all that professionally staged and carefully orchestrated PR bullshit has been tracked into our heads to keep us from seeing our own chains.

The greatest trick the aristocracy ever pulled was convincing the people they didn't exist anymore.

But, y'know, I'm an anarchist weirdo, so I might be biased.

[spacecrab.livejournal.com]

I found this (http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175326/tomgram%3A_andy_kroll%2C_how_the_oligarchs_took_america/) to be a fairly reasonable attempt to discuss the same phenomenon. The thesis is that the U.S. hasn't always been a plutocracy; but within the last thirty years, the rich have evolved techniques to make it one.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

Interesting article. Thanks for pointing it out.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

1. Crass use by the wealthy of fundamentalist religious idiots. Points:

a. They both call themselves "conservative." It takes actual education to recognize that social conservative and fiscal conservative are two different things.

b. They both want less government. But again, uneducated people only respond to the "less government" dog-whistle, not realizing that "less government interference in my desire to dominate my wife and keep my children ignorant" is not the same as "less government oversight of how my company does business."


2. Lies, lies, and more lies, poured forth from mainstream media almost totally owned by wealthy folks. Most people don't even know that they received a tax cut shortly after Obama arrived in office--they believe their taxes were raised--despite the evidence in their own goddamn paychecks.

(Yeah, I didn't need anyone to tell me there was a tax cut. One month my paycheck suddenly got bigger. HOW DO PEOPLE NOT NOTICE THAT? I guess this is why the economy crashed: people don't pay attention to how much they earn.)