Radical Inequality and American Oligarchs: “Selfish Greed” sold as “Helpful Job Creators”

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Anarchist Teaching as Free Public Education or Free Education in the Public: VIDEO

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

We realize there is something wrong with the world until we forget there is something wrong with the world. It is like a splinter in our mind driving us mad. I am not the thing abuse made, I am a shooting star blazing bright, shining far past my past. During your step into the unknown, you are at your most alone, in between both realities; all by yourself.

In a general way, all reality, in a philosophic sense, is an emergent property of reason, and knowing how reason accrues does not remove its warrant. Feelings are experienced then perceived, leading to thinking, right thinking is reason, right reason is logic, right logic is mathematics, right mathematics is physics and from there all science.

I always wonder if billionaires have a mental illness due to being as money-hungry as they are. I mean, really, just think. If I gave you a billion dollars, right now, would your next thought, actually be, “how can I make more money”???

Billionaire-ism, to me, is a disgusting show of maniacal selfishness, and the fact that society too often seems to eagerly worship them is even more disturbing to my humanity harmony and others’ self-mastery… Racism is the shame people smear all over themselves just trying to look better than others.

And sexism is that evil weed that can sadly grow even in the well-tended garden of the individual with an otherwise developed mind. Which is why it particularly needs to be attacked and exposed; and is why I support feminism.

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref 

ref

I added the writing on the pic.

ref

Oligarchy?

“Oligarchy (from Greek ὀλιγαρχία (oligarkhía); from ὀλίγος (olígos) ‘few’, and ἄρχω (arkho) ‘to rule or to command’) is a form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, religious, political, or military control.” ref

“Throughout history, oligarchies have often been tyrannical, relying on public obedience or oppression to exist. Aristotle pioneered the use of the term as meaning rule by the rich, for which another term commonly used today is plutocracy. In the early 20th century Robert Michels developed the theory that democracies, like all large organizations, tend to turn into oligarchies. In his “Iron law of oligarchy” he suggests that the necessary division of labor in large organizations leads to the establishment of a ruling class mostly concerned with protecting their own power.” ref

Minority rule

“The exclusive consolidation of power by a dominant religious or ethnic minority has also been described as a form of oligarchy. Examples of this system include South Africa under apartheid, Liberia under Americo-Liberians, the Sultanate of Zanzibar, and Rhodesia, where the installation of oligarchic rule by the descendants of foreign settlers was primarily regarded as a legacy of various forms of colonialism.” ref

“The modern United States has also been described as an oligarchy because some literature has shown that economic elites and organized groups representing special interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.” ref

Putative oligarchies

“A business group might be defined as an oligarchy if it satisfies all of the following conditions:

• Owners are the largest private owners in the country.
• It possesses sufficient political power to promote its own interests.
• Owners control multiple businesses, which intensively coordinate their activities.” ref

Cases perceived as oligarchies

Russian Federation

“Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and privatization of the economy in December 1991, privately owned Russia-based multinational corporations, including producers of petroleum, natural gas, and metal have, in the view of many analysts, led to the rise of Russian oligarchs. Most of these are connected directly to the highest-ranked government officials, such as the President.” ref

Ukraine: Ukrainian oligarchs

“The Ukrainian oligarchs are a group of business oligarchs that quickly appeared on the economic and political scene of Ukraine after its independence in 1991. Overall there are 35 oligarchic groups.” ref

United States

Further information: Wealth inequality in the United States, Income inequality in the United States § Democracy and society, Politics of the United States § Concerns about oligarchy, Campaign finance in the United States, and Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present)

“Some contemporary authors have characterized current conditions in the United States as oligarchic in nature. Simon Johnson wrote that “the reemergence of an American financial oligarchy is quite recent”, a structure which he delineated as being the “most advanced” in the world. Jeffrey A. Winters wrote that “oligarchy and democracy operate within a single system, and American politics is a daily display of their interplay.” The top 1% of the U.S. population by wealth in 2007 had a larger share of total income than at any time since 1928. In 2011, according to PolitiFact and others, the top 400 wealthiest Americans “have more wealth than half of all Americans combined.” ref

“In 1998, Bob Herbert of The New York Times referred to modern American plutocrats as “The Donor Class” (list of top donors) and defined the class, for the first time, as “a tiny group—just one-quarter of 1 percent of the population—and it is not representative of the rest of the nation. But its money buys plenty of access.” French economist Thomas Piketty states in his 2013 book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, that “the risk of a drift towards oligarchy is real and gives little reason for optimism about where the United States is headed.” ref

“A 2014 study by political scientists Martin Gilens of Princeton University and Benjamin Page of Northwestern University stated that “majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts.” The study analyzed nearly 1,800 policies enacted by the US government between 1981 and 2002 and compared them to the expressed preferences of the American public as opposed to wealthy Americans and large special interest groups.” ref

“It found that wealthy individuals and organizations representing business interests have substantial political influence, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little to none. The study did concede that “Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and Association, and a widespread (if still contested) franchise.” ref

“Gilens and Page do not characterize the US as an “oligarchy” per se; however, they do apply the concept of “civil oligarchy” as used by Jeffrey Winters with respect to the US. Winters has posited a comparative theory of “oligarchy” in which the wealthiest citizens – even in a “civil oligarchy” like the United States – dominate policy concerning crucial issues of wealth- and income protection.” ref

“Gilens says that average citizens only get what they want if wealthy Americans and business-oriented interest groups also want it; and that when a policy favored by the majority of the American public is implemented, it is usually because the economic elites did not oppose it. Other studies have criticized the Page and Gilens study. Page and Gilens have defended their study from criticism.” ref

“In a 2015 interview, former President Jimmy Carter stated that the United States is now “an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery” due to the Citizens United v. FEC ruling which effectively removed limits on donations to political candidates. Wall Street spent a record $2 billion trying to influence the 2016 United States presidential election.” ref

Koch and Hamm: two American oligarchs.

“According to Forbes’ 2012 hot list of the wealthy, Abramovich—a former Russian governor and Duma member, is currently the 9th richest person in Russia and the 68th richest person in the world. His fortune is estimated at around $12.1 billion.” ref

Koch, Courtesy USA

“Yes, there is such a thing as an American oligarch; in fact, to a very great extent, presidential elections are oligarch elections. And the 6 November election is nothing without the Koch Brothers (no relation, apparently, to the Koc family of Turkey, though we appreciate the similarity).” ref

“The Koch Brothers, led by David Koch and Charles Koch, have built their fortune on oil derivatives speculation. The family’s wealth was launched by Fred C. Koch, who founded Koch Industries, the second-largest private company in the United States. The family has long contributed massive amounts of money to the Republicans and Libertarians, and also wields its influence through millions in donations to free-market and other advocacy groups through the Koch Family Foundations.” ref

“While the Koch brothers have tended to shift their funds to Republican presidential efforts through their foundations, so that they are not directly traced to them, in July they sort of stepped out of the funding shadows by hosting a $50,000-plate dinner for Romney in the Hamptons. David Koch’s net worth? About $25 billion–and counting.” ref

Harold Hamm, Courtesy of USA

“We will avoid treading on the overwhelming territory of Big Oil and the power of Chevron, Exxon, the American Petroleum Institute, and all their combined oil moguls who make the Koch Brothers look like car salesmen. Instead, we will focus on one particular oil baron who stands out for his Bakken ambitions.” ref

“Hamm is the mastermind of Continental Resources, which is leading a massive campaign for drilling North Dakota’s Bakken formation. During the first quarter of 2012, Continental Resources “completed the equivalent of 43 wholly-owned wells into the Bakken,” according to Forbes, and “unlocking those reserves helped Continental boost its proved reserves nearly 50% in the past year to 610 million barrels.” ref

“Hamm is the 76th richest person in the world, with his 68% stake in Continental worth $7.7 billion. He plays a sizeable role in what we will call the “Romney Energy Team”, and has donated (on the record, at least), almost $1 million to the Restore Our Future Foundation, which is directly supporting Romney’s presidential bid. For Hamm, it’s all about the Bakken oil boom, and of course, the Keystone XL pipeline, which will ensure a transit route for Hamm’s oil.” ref

American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power Hardcover – January 14, 2020 by Andrea Bernstein  (Author) 4.6 out of 5 stars 572 ratings

A New York Times Bestseller

A multigenerational saga of two families, who rose from immigrant roots to the pinnacle of wealth and power, that tracks the unraveling of American democracy.

“In American Oligarchs, award-winning investigative journalist Andrea Bernstein tells the story of the Trump and Kushner families like never before. Their journey to the White House is a story of survival and loss, crime and betrayal, that stretches from the Klondike Gold Rush, through Nazi-occupied Poland and across the American Century, to our new gilded age. In building and maintaining their dynastic wealth, these families came to embody the rising nationalism and inequality that has pushed the United States to the brink of oligarchy.” ref

“Building on her landmark reporting for the acclaimed podcast Trump, Inc. and The New Yorker, Bernstein’s painstaking detective work brings to light new information about the families’ arrival as immigrants to America, their paths to success, and the business and personal lives of the president and his closest family members.” ref

“Bernstein traces how the two families ruthlessly harnessed New York and New Jersey machine politics to gain valuable tax breaks and grew rich on federal programs that bolstered the middle class. She shows how the Trump Organization, denied credit by American banks, turned to shady international capital. She reveals astonishing new details about Charles Kushner’s attempts to ensnare his brother-in-law with a prostitute and explores how Jared Kushner and his father used a venerable New York newspaper to bolster their business empire.” ref

“Drawing on more than two hundred interviews and more than one hundred thousand pages of documents, many previously unseen or long forgotten, Bernstein shows how the Trumps and the Kushners repeatedly broke rules and then leveraged secrecy, intimidation, and prosecutorial and judicial power to avoid legal consequences.” ref

“The result is a compelling narrative that details how the Trump and Kushner dynasties encouraged and profited from a system of corruption, dark money, and influence trading, and that reveals the historical turning points and decisions―on taxation, regulation, white-collar crime, and campaign finance laws―that have brought us to where we are today.” ref

America’s super-rich: six things to know

“Our new series, Big Money, is investigating the social and political clout of the super-rich. Is America an oligarchy? That was the conclusion of a 2014 study by two prominent US political scientists, who argued that the influence of economic elites and big business far outstrips that of ordinary citizens. In their view, America is less a bastion of representative democracy than a nation trammeled by the desires of the hyper-wealthy.” ref

“Others have suggested that their vision is too bleak. But the outsize economic, social and political clout of the super-wealthy in America is beyond debate – and ripe for scrutiny. That’s why we’ve launched our newest series, Big Money. Well, Radical inequality is seen in how the three richest people in the US – Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet – own more than the bottom half of the country combined.” ref

And they wield political power

“The super-rich have supersized political influence. The Koch brothers have said they invested about $250m in the 2016 election and have promised $400m for the 2018 midterms. Michael Bloomberg spent about $23m on Democrats in 2016, and is planning to spend $80m in 2018.” ref

Money talks

“More than one-quarter of all disclosed political contributions in 2012 came from just 30,000 people – and the percentage may be higher because many donations are unreported. Some researchers have concluded that wealthy people and business interests have 15 times the political efficacy of the rest of the population.” ref

Most Americans have had enough

“The political clout of billionaires has soared since the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which determined that election-spending regulations restrict the right of corporations to free speech. Yet 77% of the country believes there should be limits on how much individuals and organizations can spend on political campaigns. Most people are unhappy with the status quo, and do not think it’s fair that wealthier people have disproportionate political influence.” ref

Who are they?

Of the richest 100 billionaires,

• 98 percent are white
• 86 percent are men
• the average age is 70

“Top political donors include such household names as hedge-fund managers George Soros ($11m to Democratic causes and candidates in the 2018 election so far) and Tom Steyer (about $30m in 2018). Among conservatives, key figures are casino magnate Sheldon Adelson ($55m to Republicans in 2018).” ref

But here are several others worth paying attention to:

• James and Marilyn Simons
  James and Marilyn Simons, finance: $13m to Democrats since 2016. James Simons made his billions at the same hedge fund as Robert Mercer, a conservative backer of Cambridge Analytica.” ref
• Diane Hendricks
  Diane Hendricks, building supplies: $2.7m to Republicans since 2016. Also listed as a producer on such eclectic films as the Persian-language drama The Stoning of Soraya M. and comedy An American Carol.” ref
• Kelcy Warren
  Kelcy Warren, energy mogul: $724,000 to Republicans since 2016. His firm Energy Transfer Partners built the Dakota Access Pipeline, sparking huge protests.” ref
• Robert Smith
  Robert Smith, investor: $44,000 to Democrats since 2016. The richest African American in the US, Smith maintained a relatively low profile until his $20m donation to the Museum of African American History in Washington, DC – the second-largest, after Oprah’s.” ref
• Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein
  Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, shipping supplies magnates: $32 million to Republican party, PACs and candidates since 2016. In her company newsletter, Liz Uihlein speaks of her devotion to Fox News and her habit of working over a Diet Coke in her local McDonald’s.” ref

American oligarchs: Report details how the wealthiest US dynasties hoard their fortunes – and accelerate inequality

“A new analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies points to the harms of rising consolidated wealth, and ways to make the rich shoulder their fair share of the tax burden. An analysis of the 50 richest families in the U.S. highlights tactics used to guard growing “dynastic wealth” in the country, and points to ideas for curbing and effectively taxing consolidated wealth.” ref

“The Institute for Policy Studies tracked American families from Forbes’ list across nearly four decades and found that their assets grew by 1007% since 1983, outpacing the average American’s by a factor of 10. The list of American “dynasties” includes household names such as the S.C. Johnson, Rockefeller, and Marriott families.” ref

“IPS, a think tank focused on foreign and domestic policy, human rights, and economics, notes numerous negative consequences of dynastic wealth accumulation. Firstly, dynasties wield serious political and philanthropic power that can be used to pursue their own agendas. Additionally, the IPS report contends that these dynasties do more than hoard wealth across generations; they grow it. For example, ISP cites the cases of the Mars candy and Estée Lauder cosmetics dynasties, whose wealth multiplied by billions between 1983 and 2020. The staggering rate of wealth growth for the country’s top dynastic families only accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic, IPS found.” ref

“In a U.S. context, we’re not a society that had hereditary monarchies. It’s a reflection of a broken system. If people are paying their fair share of taxes, if they’re having children and the money is dispersing over generations, if they’re giving some money to charity, then you don’t have wealth accelerate,” Chuck Collins, co-author of the report, and director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at IPS, told ICIJ. “It’s not just that these families remain wealthy, their wealth is accelerating over generations. That shows that they found a way to hide or sequester the money.” ref

“IPS identified six “habits” of highly-entrenched dynasties. These include defeating attempts to raise taxes on the wealthy, not giving away too much to charity, forming a family office to sequester wealth, creating dynasty trusts and loopholes to avoid gift or estate taxation, and using wealth to promote self-serving public policy and weaponizing charitable giving for dynastic interests.” ref

“Rising wealth and income inequality has been making headlines in the U.S. recently after  ProPublica obtained Internal Revenue Service records exposing billionaires who sparingly pay taxes. Similarly, the IPS report discusses how the wealthiest Americans often pay little to nothing in income tax due to systemic loopholes that are perfectly legal. Since the Reagan era, individuals in upper tax brackets pay significantly less proportionally in taxes than they have historically. One major reason is that these individuals receive most of their income from capital gains such as interest and dividends from investments, as opposed to paychecks, ProPublica reported.” ref

“Capital gains tax can be avoided by holding on to the asset and accruing interest, unlike take-home pay. In this method, the asset’s growth can avoid taxes too. IPS says that as dynasties avoid taxes, the burden to fund social services falls on the working class.” ref

“Use every tool at your disposal within the law, especially through estate planning, to keep as much of that money as possible out of the hands of government bureaucrats who will only misuse it,” Abigail Disney, an heiress to the Disney company fortune, wrote in the Atlantic about what she was taught when she began to manage her inheritance at age 21, in response to the ProPublica report. “As time has passed, I have realized that the dynamics of wealth are similar to the dynamics of addiction. The more you have, the more you need.” ref

“The report also highlights potential policy solutions. IPS suggests greater oversight and enforcement by strengthening the IRS, implementing Sen. Eizabeth Warren’s wealth tax proposal, a special wealth tax for pandemic relief efforts, a millionaire surtax, stronger estate taxes, and inheritance taxes for heirs. In addition to reforms that have already been proposed, IPS says that outlawing certain types of trusts and having the executive branch institute regulations if Congress fails to act would be helpful in curbing dynastic wealth.” ref

“If we choose to continue along this path, families of inherited wealth will exert ever more control over public policy and the public pocketbook,” the IPS report concluded. “But we can choose to move in a new direction: to enact economic policies that strengthen society as a whole, ensuring equal opportunity and dignity for all, not just the very few.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

• Prehistory: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” the division of labor, power, rights, and recourses.
• Anarchists Cory Johnston (in Saskatchewan) and Damien Marie AtHope (in Florida) seek to learn more about the indigenous peoples of the Americas (First Nations/Native Americans) where they both live.
• Two Anarchists: Cory Johnston and Damien Marie AtHope, address the Israel and Palestine conflict
• I am not the thing abuse made and I strive to be a good human: an atheist, anarchist, socialist, humanist, and humanitarian.
• Yes, I am Actually an Atheist Anarchist
• My Atheistic (socialist-anarchist) Humanism?
• I am an Anarchist and Strive to Fight Injustice
• New Mutualism and My Anarcho-Humanism
• Atheist Anarchists Discussion
• I am an Axiological Atheist, with a Rationalist Persuasion, who Supports Anarcho-Humanism
• Trump Troll and my Anarchist Atheist Response?
• I am a “Real Anarchist” not an “Anarcho-Capitalist”
• A Different Kind of Atheist: Axiological, Methodological, Anarchist, Universal Ethicist, Realist, and Rationalist
• Left Unity: A Marxist Leninist AND A Socialist Anarchist discuss
• How is paganism bad exactly? (an Atheist Anarchist-Socialist and a Pagan Anarchist-Communist argue)
• Self-Sovereignty, Self-Efficiency, Self-Mastery, and Solidarity: Relationship Anarchism & Anarchist Naturalism
• Anarchist Teaching as Free Public Education or Free Education in the Public
• Belief (Theism) and Disbelief (Atheism) in Anarchism and Socialism?
• Anarchy Atheism
• I am Anti-Classist: addressing styles of anarchism and socialism, power to the people
• Climate change and other crimes of capitalism. A green anarchist future?
• Green Anarchism, Eco-Anarchism, and Anarcho-Naturism?
• Anarcho-Humanist sharing “Non-Anarchist Memes,” to Fight Bigotry?
• Yes, YOU too, can be an Anarcho-Humanist?

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Art by Damien Marie AtHope

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope (Said as “At” “Hope”)/(Autodidact Polymath but not good at math):

Axiological Atheist, Anti-theist, Anti-religionist, Secular Humanist, Rationalist, Writer, Artist, Jeweler, Poet, “autodidact” Philosopher, schooled in Psychology, and “autodidact” Armchair Archaeology/Anthropology/Pre-Historian (Knowledgeable in the range of: 1 million to 5,000/4,000 years ago). I am an anarchist socialist politically. Reasons for or Types of Atheism

My Website, My Blog, & Short-writing or Quotes, My YouTube, Twitter: @AthopeMarie, and My Email: damien.marie.athope@gmail.com