Why Our Democracy is False
September 8th, 2007According to the Wikipedia page,
Oligarchy (Greek Ὀλιγαρχία, Oligarkhía) is a form of government where political power effectively rests with a small, elite segment of society (whether distinguished by wealth, family or military powers). The word oligarchy is from the Greek words for “few” (ὀλίγον óligon) and “rule” (ἄρχω arkho).
On the other hand, democracy,
The word democracy derives from the ancient Greek demokratia (δημοκρατία), formed from the roots demos (δημος), “people,” “the mob, the many” and kratos (κρατος) “rule”.
The top 1% control about 35% of all wealth in America, and the top 20% control 84% of all wealth (ref.). That leaves 14% of all wealth for the other 80% of us to share. It’s plain to anyone who looks that wealth in the first world is highly unbalanced. Very few people are in control of almost all of the money.
Politics ain’t cheap. In fact, it’s pretty much impossible to be any kind of successful politician unless you are in those top percentages I mentioned. Elected or no, the power is with the wealthy. More then that, politicians can be bought by the others of the super rich. Take a look at this. It’s a list of lobby money spent, by industry. All that money goes in part to campaign contributions, and in part to buying time to spend in the ears of the politicians. So, they give a politician a bunch of money and then tell them what they want them to do… But, it’s lobbying, not bribing.
The truth is, when we vote it’s one corrupt super-rich politician verses another, and they all serve the people who pay them, not the people who elect them. You want to know who rules in America? Here’s a list.
Further Reading:
- Wealth, Income, and Power by Prof. G. William Domhoff, University of California at Santa Curz
This is a very detailed and well documented paper on the distribution of wealth and power in the U.S. - opensecrets.org
This site is about trying to reveal the financial information regarding politicians that the law has made public. - Orwell Rolls In His Grave
A documentary on the power of the corporate media. I didn’t get into it, but this doc argues that the media is the means preventing people from realizing our false democracy.