It's the "informal Oligarchy", (reprise)

[icehorse]

Lest anyone think I'm one-sided in my criticisms...

My claim is that the "informal oligarchy" is the root of most evil in "the West". (To be fair, it's probably the root of much evil throughout the entire world.)

I think when most people hear the word "oligarchy" they think of some secret society of uber-rich people scheming together to take all of our money. My take is that they don't need a secret society, and in fact they might battle each sometimes. What they DO all have in common though are armies of top lawyers who find insidious ways to game the system. Subsidies, tax dodges, legal and illegal corruption, regulation avoidance, and on and on.

So "big-whatever" (Big Agri, Big Pharma...), takes over some aspect of our economy and pillages it. Leaving behind environmental destruction, damaged economies, low quality products and services, and abused citizens. Some examples:

- Big Agriculture with it's unsustainable, environmentally abusive, profit-oriented, population enslaving practices.
- Privatized prisons, should be self explanatory.
- Big Energy, besmirching the environment to maximize short term profits.
- Big Pharma, price fixing and price gouging the population, and preferring silver-bullet healthcare over preventative healthcare.
- Parasitic corporations like Walmart that force the population to subsidize their profitability by paying their workers so poorly that many of them - with full time jobs - need food stamps to survive.
- Wallstreet and big banks, say no more
- The military industrial complex, putting the world at risk with a surfeit of weaponry, and bankrupting economies along the way.
- Big Education, corrupting the quality of our educational systems so that text book publishers can provide low quality materials but make big profits, distorting the entire system so that we teach what's testable, not what's appropriate, thereby gaming the funding system.
- Short sighted politicians (which appears to be almost all of them), who ignore our infrastructure, and who are clearly "coerced" by all of the above interests.

I'm sure I've missed some of these parasites...

 

[Brickjectivity]

Its good to be aware of these things from time to time, but its toxic to live thinking about them. Come visit us in the peaceful bliss sometimes.

 

[icehorse]

Its good to be aware of these things from time to time, but its toxic to live thinking about them. Come visit us in the peaceful bliss sometimes.

These situations provide me with endless opportunities to practice my Zen Buddhist detachment.

 

[idav]

Lest anyone think I'm one-sided in my criticisms...

My claim is that the "informal oligarchy" is the root of most evil in "the West". (To be fair, it's probably the root of much evil throughout the entire world.)

I think when most people hear the word "oligarchy" they think of some secret society of uber-rich people scheming together to take all of our money. My take is that they don't need a secret society, and in fact they might battle each sometimes. What they DO all have in common though are armies of top lawyers who find insidious ways to game the system. Subsidies, tax dodges, legal and illegal corruption, regulation avoidance, and on and on.

So "big-whatever" (Big Agri, Big Pharma...), takes over some aspect of our economy and pillages it. Leaving behind environmental destruction, damaged economies, low quality products and services, and abused citizens. Some examples:

- Big Agriculture with it's unsustainable, environmentally abusive, profit-oriented, population enslaving practices.
- Privatized prisons, should be self explanatory.
- Big Energy, besmirching the environment to maximize short term profits.
- Big Pharma, price fixing and price gouging the population, and preferring silver-bullet healthcare over preventative healthcare.
- Parasitic corporations like Walmart that force the population to subsidize their profitability by paying their workers so poorly that many of them - with full time jobs - need food stamps to survive.
- Wallstreet and big banks, say no more
- The military industrial complex, putting the world at risk with a surfeit of weaponry, and bankrupting economies along the way.
- Big Education, corrupting the quality of our educational systems so that text book publishers can provide low quality materials but make big profits, distorting the entire system so that we teach what's testable, not what's appropriate, thereby gaming the funding system.
- Short sighted politicians (which appears to be almost all of them), who ignore our infrastructure, and who are clearly "coerced" by all of the above interests.

I'm sure I've missed some of these parasites...

Even if there is a sector which hasn't been taken over completely monopoly style, you only have a few giants fighting over the pie.

 

[Brickjectivity]

Even if there is a sector which hasn't been taken over completely monopoly style, you only have a few giants fighting over the pie.

Seems true. I mean there's Etsy but nothing much else. You need a license to build anything plus multiple permits, and do not bother to compete with Exxon.

 

[idav]

Seems true. I mean there's Etsy but nothing much else. You need a license to build anything plus multiple permits, and do not bother to compete with Exxon.

Same with the giants like Apple, Microsoft and Amazon

 

[buddhist]

Get rid of all corporate laws (no more gov't recognized corporations) and be done with it all.

 

[icehorse]

Get rid of all corporate laws (no more gov't recognized corporations) and be done with it all.

A more feasible first step would be to greatly simplify the tax code, and perhaps to create use taxes. E.g. a company that uses public roads a lot ought to help pay for the upkeep of those roads.

 

[Sunstone]

If you study history you know that oligarchies naturally tend to evolve into dictatorships. You also know the necessary solution is to aggressively redistribute the wealth of the oligarchs so that there is significantly less of a gap between the society's richest and poorest citizens.

 

[icehorse]

If you study history you know that oligarchies naturally tend to evolve into dictatorships. You also know the necessary solution is to aggressively redistribute the wealth of the oligarchs so that there is significantly less of a gap between the society's richest and poorest citizens.

Would you agree we're heading in the direction of an oligarchy?

 

[idav]

If you study history you know that oligarchies naturally tend to evolve into dictatorships. You also know the necessary solution is to aggressively redistribute the wealth of the oligarchs so that there is significantly less of a gap between the society's richest and poorest citizens.

The elites are the best in position to create more jobs in their own country and more wealthy people outside their inner circles. Just rarely happens cause that may hurt the bottom line.

 

[Sunstone]

Would you agree we're heading in the direction of an oligarchy?

No, I would not. I think the Princeton Study and other evidence adds up to the conclusion that, rather than being merely headed in that direction, we are already there.

 

[icehorse]

Thanks @Sunstone - one of many links:

Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy - BBC News

 

[Sunstone]

@icehorse, we have a very narrow time frame in which to act if we want any chance at all of wrestling the country back from the oligarchy.

 

[icehorse]

@icehorse, we have a very narrow time frame in which to act if we want any chance at all of wrestling the country back from the oligarchy.

Agreed. First steps? Borrowing as I do from Confucius, it would seem that turning the idea into a meme is an important early step. I wonder if even the most populist politicians (I'm thinking of Warren, Franken, Saunders...), would ever start talking about this publicly?

What else? Boycotts?