Average Americans today have essentially zilch influence on public policy
from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:
Our Stealth Politics of Inequality
APRIL 2, 2015
Average Americans today have essentially zilch influence on public policy. You dont need to trust your gut on that. Political scientist Benjamin Page has the data.
What happens to democracy when income and wealth concentrate?
A half-century ago, that question hardly seemed worth asking. In the decades right after World War II, Americans were living in a nation and a world, for that matter growing ever more equal.
But that America no longer exists. Robber barons once again walk among us. Grand fortunes once again tower over Americas social landscape.
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Last year, Page and Princetons Martin Gilens released what one commentator has called the first-ever scientific study of whether our contemporary United States still ranks as a democracy.
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Ben Page: ........... But if you ask about concrete policies like taxing the wealthy at higher levels or getting rid of loopholes that favor hedge fund managers average Americans turn out to favor many policies that would have strong redistributive effects.
On the spending side, we see lots of support for things like jobs programs, the earned income tax credit, and Social Security. Most people want to increase these programs at the very time when many political figures and pundits are telling us you have to cut, cut, cut. ................(more)
http://toomuchonline.org/the-stealth-politics-of-our-unequal-age/