The United States are ruled by the rich. It is not a secret. And neither are the enormous amounts of money that flow into Washington, especially during campaign seasons, making sure the wealthiest continue to be favored by the government regardless of the party in charge. The ideological capture of Washington by the few stands in stark contrast to the perceived fundamental American values of equality and democracy and is widely despised for that very reason. But the rule of a country even as big as the United States by a corrupt elite is not by a long shot a unique case and as a model of governance it is not inconceivable to endure for years to come. What makes the continued American oligarchy inconceivable, however, is the depraved quality of the governance it bestows on the United States and by extension the rest of the world; a form of governance that speaks to the deplorable character, lack of humanity and breathtaking shortsightedness of its perpetrators.
The outcome of the oligarchy’s rule over the last 30 years has been in many ways spectacular for themselves while proving disastrous for the country as a whole. Their agenda has been straightforward: eliminate any regulatory burden impeding profits, cut taxes to minimize government ability for oversight, establish as favorable a tax code for themselves as possible, guarantee themselves the greatest possible amount of government funding and guarantees and keep an ongoing public infighting going while maintaining an air of patriotic respectability.
The results speak for themselves. The richest Americans own a greater share of the nation’s wealth and income than any time since the Great Depression, they pay the lowest effective tax rates since the Great Depression and in this self-created capitalist paradise almost all newly created income goes exclusively to the richest 1% of Americans. Corporate America fared equally well. Profits are at an all-time high, while tax contributions to the federal budget are a third of what they used to be in the 1950s. 10% of the S&P 500 managed to pay effectively no federal taxes at all or even received billion dollar tax refunds. Making money has indeed been so easy for America’s corporations that they have run out of ways to spend it holding 5 trillion in cash reserves even after spending record amounts on CEO salaries. So if it comes to concentrating the nation’s wealth the oligarchy has succeeded beyond its wildest dreams.
But what are the consequences of the rule of the wealthy for the rest of the United States? What does the success of the oligarchy translate into for the average American? The answer is that for an American worker in the 21st century the richest country in the world has never appeared so poor, so indifferent and offered so little. The profit of the few is the deficit of the many. The money that is stashed offshore tax shelters by corporations or in vast amounts invested for the elite in money market funds is missing for investments that would further general welfare and the public good.
The infrastructure that binds the country together and keeps it moving is falling apart. The US is every year falling back further in education performing below average in the community of developed nations in virtually every category. Good education becomes increasingly unaffordable. Wages stagnate as workers put in longer hours. A stable 15% of Americans live in poverty and so does every fifth child. The United States is the only developed country that doesn’t offer its citizens universal healthcare. Consumer debt to finance education or a car has at $3.2 trillion never been higher. At this point the average American pays his due taxes and gets nothing in return except an utterly dysfunctional government, a double-standard legal system, a shattered American Dream and a public discourse that couldn’t be more cynical. While the oligarchy is busy amassing the nation’s wealth, the rest of the country is neglected and the social fabric of society is slowly falling apart.
The more successful the oligarchy managed to have their wishes translated into law the more severe the pressure on the rest of the country has become. So far the transition of the United States from a fairly equal country dominating in virtually every category in the 50s to a slowly declining empire resembling social realities of a Banana Republic has progressed relatively unopposed. Yet, the men who keep on forcing their self-serving rules upon the American people should ask themselves what ends their actions are aspiring to. How much more can they rig the system, squeeze the populace and abuse their influence before the indignant public reacts to their country being bled dry? How long can the people be kept apathetic about their country’s condition and lulled into inaction by the media? Elitist exploitation will ultimately find its boundaries in the public’s patience.
But it is not only the oligarchy’s relentless pursuit of wealth accumulation and the consequential erosion of the average American’s livelihood that renders it illegitimate. The United States itself is its major victim as the country slowly loses its ability to innovate, reinvent and rebuild itself and its gridlocked government is too focused on serving their funders to respond to the societal or political challenges. Progress becomes elusive and active efforts to roll back societal achievements like Social Security that lifted millions out of poverty are undertaken. The oligarchy is in effect presiding over the self-induced decline of the cash cow they are feasting off.
Credit – Beverly & Pack
A lasting American oligarchy would be possible if its goals and the goals of the American people and the country were aligned. It is not inconceivable that the people would relinquish their right to democratic participation if their livelihood would take a turn for the better. However, the detrimental effects of the oligarchy’s rule on populace and country are ample evidence that the few are not working for and in many cases against the will of the many. Their shortsighted insistence on pleasuring their greedy disposition instead of at least in part serving their de facto subjects will compromise their own position and is the most damning evidence of leadership failure.
The American oligarchs inadvertently volunteered to run the United States. Their arrogance propelled them to. The act of buying influence in Washington must at its root have the conviction to know better and to deserve a greater say. But in reality their inept governance is bleeding the United States dry, exposes its citizens to unnecessary hardship and shapes the “Greatest Country on Earth” into anything but. They might not understand the ultimate consequences of their actions or they might not be able to change the country’s dynamic at this point. But ultimately it is their body of work that renders them unfit to govern, will force them to forfeit control and end the pathetic chapter that will go down in history as the failed American Oligarchy of the early 21st century.