The Road to Oligarchy - by Senator Bernie Sanders

[kpete]

The Road to Oligarchy
by Senator Bernie Sanders


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Economically, the United States today has, by far, the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth and that inequality is worse today in America than at any time since the late 1920s.

Today, the wealthiest 400 individuals own more wealth than the bottom half of America -- 150 million people.

Today, one family, the Walton family of Walmart fame, with $89 billion, own more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of America. One family owns more wealth than the bottom 40 percent.

Today, the top one percent own 40 percent of all wealth, while the bottom sixty percent owns less than 2 percent. Incredibly, the bottom 40 percent of all Americans own just 3/10 of one percent of the wealth of the country.

That is what is going on economically in this country. A handful of billionaires own a significant part of the wealth of America and have enormous control over our economy. What the Supreme Court did in Citizens United is to say to these same billionaires: "You own and control the economy, you own Wall Street, you own the coal companies, you own the oil companies. Now, for a very small percentage of your wealth, we're going to give you the opportunity to own the United States government." That is the essence of what Citizens United is all about -- and that's why it must be overturned.

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MORE:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/25/1113599/-The-Road-to-Oligarchy

[ladjf]

1. In my book. Senator Sanders is one of our best politicians. nt

[sabrina 1]

2. If only there were more of him Congress.

Those numbers should be enough to cause outrage but where is the outrage? And most of them got what they have by questionable means. Romney, eg, made a fortune through his dealings with the Junk Bond Kink, knowing that he was under investigation while he was doing business with him. We could all be that wealthy if we were that immoral.

Something needs to be done about this before it becomes irreversible, but I don't hear anyone other than Bernie and one or two others, even mentioning it.