Posted on 04/16/2014 5:54:13 AM PDT by knittnmom
You have to remember that the reason the 1%ers love collectivism is because it keeps the other 99% from competing with them.
This country is run by the Universities.
The most dangerous of oligarchy.
I think this comes from their failure to understand the structure of a republican-democracy.
From the beginning, the founding fathers realized that the public needs *a* voice in government, and it should be heard frequently; but that the public should not directly control the government, or the end result might be chaotic. A belief that was confirmed just a short time later during the French revolution.
So for this reason, the people only had one direct route to the federal government, the house of representatives. And the people could completely change it if they wanted to, every two years.
The second body of the government, the senate, was not supposed to be popularly elected, but was to reflect the interests of the individual states. This didn’t just protect the government from the people, but also protected the people from direct actions against them as people by the federal government. The states acted as a “buffer” against an intrusive federal government.
The third body of the government is the president, who was *not* supposed to be popularly elected, but appointed by the electoral college. Again, this was designed to short circuit efforts to elect a purely populist president who was either a puppet or otherwise short on ability.
The electoral college again acting as a buffer between the people and the office.
The fourth body of the government, the judiciary, was not supposed to be popular at all, but appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate (as such, by the approval of the individual states.)
What could not be considered by the founding fathers was how the public would evolve the means to interpose itself into these systems. Not as individuals, but as groups.
Only at this point does the fear of an oligopoly begin.
A major problem began during the Lincoln administration, when indirectly the Supreme Court embraced the idea of corporate civil rights, which now dominate business law.
Civil rights are “endowed by the creator”, but corporate civil rights are entirely bestowed by the government, so it is an exceptionally bad idea to confuse the two. However, corporations do need something akin to rights to protect themselves from government.
Even in the 19th Century, power politics led by business cartels were becoming dangerous, in that giant banking and later industrial corporations. The influence of such people on government finally made it possible for them to manipulate government, by defeating its constitutional balances.
In any event, it is past time for an Article V convention to correct some of the problems that have evolved over time.
Yes, of course and it took just as long as there was grant money to do the job.
They have now also “discovered” that marijuana causes brain damage. Really? Who knew?
Government is bought and paid for by the oligarchs.
We are in a slow transition to a technological ghetto ruled by a few elite. Part of the transition is to destabilize the system until all idle workers die. That's why they are being herded into cities- kill zones.
It bewilders me how so many nitwits in this country can rail against greedy, fat-cat corporate big-wigs and their shady shenanigans, yet they continue to put the same damn crooks in office - people who have a much greater effect on the country - year after year (see "Reid, Harry").
This is about Marxists attacking free enterprise from another direction.
Clearly people who are wealthy have more influence than people who are penniless. In most cases it's because the wealthier have been more effective in running their lives in a productive manner. As a general rule, effective people are preferable to ineffective people as leaders. Of course there are exceptions.
But the real concern is that our political rulers are insulating themselves from the citizenry by using government largess to buy large numbers of votes.
They are bankrupting the country, addicting needy voters, and crippling initiative.
If you have read the annual Forbes 400 over the past 25 years you will notice that there is a high level of turnover and once someone has left the 400 they rarely return. Only about 40% are “inherited” rich and the balance are “self made”.
This indicates the opportunities created by a dynamic economy.
However, as government intervention and regulation increases the economy becomes less dynamic which will result in fewer new arrivals at the 400.
Princeton? Research? The home of Paul Krugman? LOL
These so-called ‘researchers’ are so blind they fail to recognize that universities are an integral part of the power structure. They’re the last place to find unbiased studies.
And who do you think made that possible? Santa Claus. That means you could be bought. Doesn’t say much a about decent character. Sad.
The elite bought the politicians and get what they want no-matter how the people vote. Anyone who can't be bribed and challenges the status quo gets threatened, involved in a scandal or dies.
A few nonsense divisive issues are brought out every year to make people fight each other and convince 50% that they “won”. All the while their and their children's freedoms are sold out the back by both parties.
“That means you could be bought. Doesn’t say much a about decent character. Sad.”
Very few people on this earth can't be bought, threatened or blackmailed. Maybe even no one. Power = control.
The only way things will change is if the entire existing system goes down.
I disagree. Those are just symptoms, the root cause is educational in nature: we have a citizenry that is woefully underinformed and seriously misinformed, in a whole series of areas. Preeminent, IMHO, are Civics and Economics.
The truth is that the franchise still exists, but it isn’t being exercised by an informed voting public. If people really understood the mid and long term consequences of what is going on, and was more immune to being distracted by bread and circuses, there not only wouldn’t be an oligarchy, there couldn’t be one.
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