Bill Moyers, Money and Power in America

[kpete]

The religion of inequality -- of money and power -- has failed us; its gods are false gods. There is something more essential -- more profound -- in the American experience than the hyena’s appetite. Once we recognize and nurture this, once we honor it, we can reboot democracy and get on with the work of liberating the country we carry in our hearts.

Who Dunnit?

You didn’t have to read Das Kapital to see this coming or to realize that the United States was being transformed into one of the harshest, most unforgiving societies among the industrial democracies. You could instead have read the Economist, arguably the most influential business-friendly magazine in the English-speaking world. I keep in my files a warning published in that magazine a dozen years ago, on the eve of George W. Bush’s second term. The editors concluded back then that, with income inequality in the U.S. reaching levels not seen since the first Gilded Age and social mobility diminishing, “the United States risks calcifying into a European-style class-based society.”

And mind you, that was before the financial meltdown of 2007-2008, before the bailout of Wall Street, before the recession that only widened the gap between the super-rich and everyone else. Ever since then, the great sucking sound we’ve been hearing is wealth heading upwards. The United States now has a level of income inequality unprecedented in our history and so dramatic it’s almost impossible to wrap one’s mind around.

Contrary to what the president said at Rutgers, this is not the way the world works; it’s the way the world is made to work by those with the money and power. The movers and shakers -- the big winners -- keep repeating the mantra that this inequality was inevitable, the result of the globalization of finance and advances in technology in an increasingly complex world. Those are part of the story, but only part. As G.K. Chesterton wrote a century ago, “In every serious doctrine of the destiny of men, there is some trace of the doctrine of the equality of men. But the capitalist really depends on some religion of inequality.”

Exactly. In our case, a religion of invention, not revelation, politically engineered over the last 40 years. Yes, politically engineered. On this development, you can’t do better than read Winner Take All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson, the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson of political science.



Way More:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176184/

[Dustlawyer]

1. In this era of campaign investment reaps huge financial and political rewards, regular

Americans are the ones who pay the taxes but get few, if any benefits. Wall Street gambles and we pay the losses. Companies like BP take short cuts and cut political and media deals to keep the effect of their mistake from becoming public knowledge. The media will not report against a major advertiser.

We allow legal bribery of our elected representatives which is the root cause of most of our problems. The media will not talk about this and we wonder why Washington cannot get anything done for the benefit of the majority of Americans. Until we address the root cause of influence peddling we will continue to grow the inequality gap!

Love me some Bill Moyers!!!

[malaise]

2. I have that book Winner Take All Politics:

How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class