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The United States is
No Longer a Democratic Country,
it is a Richalist Country!
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Socialism is when you have collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods and there is no private property. Some fear that the United States is headed towards socialism. We are no where near that but we have already strayed away from democracy and have entered richalism.
"Richalism" is not in current dictionaries but it should be. Yes, we still elect a President, Congressmen, and Senators but they are all con artists that say anything to get elected and then totally forget about representing those that voted for them. It does not matter any more if they are Republicans or Democrats because their votes are all owned by the big companies and special interests (the rich). Getting elected now is such an expensive operation that they have to sell their votes to get enough money to get elected. When Obama campaigned he was emphatic about not being a puppet of the lobbyists and special interests but he soon succumbed and sold his soul like all the other politicians.
With Richalism the politicians are owned by the rich and their only purpose is to vote for the rich so the rich will help get reelected. Richalism was made official with the 2010 supreme court ruling that government can't place limits on independent spending for political purposes by corporations and unions. Now the rich can finance all the TV and newspaper ads they want and thereby influence who gets elected.
Big companies have paid lobbyists in Washington. Their main job is to influence legislation so it benefits the companies that pay them. They are very good at their job and, in fact, most legislation is actually written by the lobbyists and often is not even read by the Senators and Congressmen. They just vote the way the lobbyists tell them to vote. It is not only companies that have lobbyists. Special interest groups like unions, trade groups, American Medical Association, and foreign countries. Even when rules and regulations are written that are ostensibly written to protect the public it is the lobbyists that see to it that any new rules and regulations don't really hurt the companies/organizations that the rules/regulations are supposed to control.
Crony Capitalism is a term that well describes the relationship between the rich and the government. The rich are in cahoots with the government to be sure their interests are protected so they can get even richer. The much hated Obama health care law is a good example. While the original intent of the law was far from ideal it had some good intentions but Obama conceded to the insurance companies who saw to it that the bill was modified and watered down to the point where it was not a threat to their health insurance business. Otherwise it never would have became law.
I am not a socialist, I believe in capitalism, and I have no objection to people being rich. What I do object to is allowing capitalist companies and special interest groups to use the government to protect and assist their interests so they can make more money. Influencing tax rules so they favor the rich is one of the most basic ways the rich use the government. Subsidies to the oil and gas industry and corporate farmers is another way government is used to enhance the profits of certain companies. Then there are tariffs, ear marks, military spending, and the list goes on and on. It has come to the point that the main function of government is to help the rich get richer.
What we have in the USA is a reverse Robin hood richalistic government. That is, government makes the poor poorer and the rich richer. During the Reagan administration the trickle down theory became popular - also known as Reaganomics or supply-side economics. The idea was, make the rich richer and they will invest in projects that will help the poor. That ill-advised theory has been proven to not work. Since then we have many more billionaires but we also have many more living below the poverty line. The recent 2010 census showed that we now have over 46 million people living below the poverty line. That is the greatest amount in over 50 years and about 21 million more than in the 1970s. During the same time period the number of billionaires went from near zero in 1970 to over 400 in 2010.
There has been a lot of talk about taxing the rich. The Republican party says that taxes on the rich should be decreased to stimulate the economy and thereby create jobs and end the recession. History shows that there is little correlation between taxes on the rich and the economy. After WWII and until the early 1960s, taxes on the rich were about 90% and the unemployment rate varied from less than 2% to a high of 6.8%. In the early 1980s taxes on the rich were down to 50% and unemployment hit a high of almost 10%. Now with the rich paying very low tax rates we have high unemployment and are in a recession that is predicted to last for several more years.
We do not have a government "for the people and by the people". We have a government "for the rich and by the rich" - a Richalist government!
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