When we combine the new evidence of our current oligarchy thats been provided by the corporate stooge supreme court with this brand new and rare poll of the 1% done by the academic journal "Perspectives on Politics", we can easily understand our Govt's ambivalence towards economic justice and middle and working class prosperity.
http://www.opednews.com/...
When the .1% own the politicians, both Dem and Con, it can be assumed that those same politicians will try and enact policies that their owners want.
Well what do the owners want?
This poll has some answers, and those are below the fold.
First a breakdown of the wealth in the sample polled:
73% of the respondents in this study were wealthier than $5 million. 36% were wealthier than $10 million. 22% were wealthier than $20 million. And 8% were wealthier than $40 million.
The polls show that these people are extremely active politically and they vote religiously:
40% of the respondents had "Made Contact With" (which was a conspicuously undefined phrase in the study) the person's U.S. Senator.
37% had made contact with with his Representative.
12% had, with a White House Official.
21% had, with an Official at a Regulatory Agency.
Of these "contacts," 44% were asserted to have been for private business reasons, such as to "try to get the Treasury to honor their commitment to extend TARP fund to a particular bank."
99% of respondents had voted in 2008.
84% said that they were paying attention to politics ""most of the time.' Asked how many days of the week they talk politics, the median response was five days.
We wouldn't be in our current political situation if 99% of the middle and working classes voted regularly.
Evidence that they own the politicians:
"Fully two-thirds contributed money to politics, giving an average of $4,633 to political campaigns or organizations over the previous twelve months." And, "A remarkable 21 percent ... solicited or "bundled' other peoples' political contributions."
How many of my fellow Kossacks have donated more than $4600 to political causes? If you can't afford to make large donations, why should your representative listen to you when 94% of political race victories go the the candidate that spends more money?
So we've seen how active they are politically, now what policies do the prefer? Stop me when some of these start to sound familiar.
87% were opposed to "responsibility of the government to reduce the differences in income between people with high incomes and those with low incomes." Studies of the general public showed that the comparable percentage among the public was 54%.
83% were opposed to the idea that "our government should redistribute wealth by heavy taxes on the rich." 48% of the general public were.
These two aren't too surprising.
Overwhelmingly, by a 33% net margin, top 1%ers wanted Social Security spending to be "cut back." Even more overwhelmingly, by a net 46% margin, the general public wants it to be "expanded."
By a net 19% margin, those rich want federal spending for health care to be "cut back"; and the public, by a net 44% margin, want it to be "expanded."
The wealthy don't need SS and medicare so of course its logical to them that those programs that overwhelmingly benefit the middle and working classes should be cut.
81% of the rich oppose the idea that "The government in Washington ought to see to it that everyone who wants to work can find a job." 68% of the general public favor that same idea.
92% of the rich oppose the idea that "The federal government should provide jobs for everyone able and willing to work who cannot find a job." 53% of the general public support it.
The wealthy don't need jobs from the Govt and they obviously don't care about the middle and working classes. Full employment is just not a priority for the wealthy. Corporate profits are at all time records with 10% unemployment so what benefit would full employment have for the .1%? Full employment would just mean that workers demand higher wages and be less compliant because they wouldn't fear their bosses as much with plenty of job opportunities in the economy.
I could go on and on with the results of the poll, but I won't. If you are interested in getting a deeper glimpse into the psyche of the wealthy, just go to the link at the top of the diary.
Lets finish with a bit of nutshellin' shall we?
The wealthy have more money than us, they vote and pester their elected officials more than us, and they provide more money to the political class than we do. So its no wonder the Govt represents their views more than ours.
And what are those views? Well they can be summed up as conservative economics. The Govt (which of course is OUR Govt) shouldn't help the middle and working classes with health care, retirement, jobs, or education, because if the wealthy don't need it, then surely the middle and working classes shouldn't need it, amirite?
Anyways, all of those lend further credence to an excellent post over a New Economic Perspectives by J.D. Alt titled "Forget the 1%"
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/...
The big difference between the mainstream progressive community and MMTers is that progressives falsely believe that We need the 1%'s money in order to afford to spend on progressive economic policies. This is The Big Lie that these same wealthy, who obviously do not care about us, have repeatedly sold to the middle and working classes. That Our Govt is powerless without higher taxes on the wealthy. The 1% have convinced the progressive community that deficits are bad and "debt" is scary, and thus progressive economic policy cant be implemented without higher taxes. And the 1% know this will never happen because they own the politicians, therefore nothing ever gets done.
MMTers understand that this is actually this opposite of reality, the 1% would not have all their US Dollars if not for the US Govt. The US Govt created all the laws that created the modern US Dollar out of nothing. The Govt has made all the laws and rules of the market in which the wealthy have gotten that way. The Govt protects the wealthy both physically and economically through our justice system and policemilitary. When the Govt spends dollars, they don't need to get those dollars from somewhere else first.
When an NFL stadium issues tickets, do they need to first receive those tickets in taxes before they can "spend them"? Of course not.
When you play monopoly, nobody fears running out of money because when the paper runs out you get to just right up new pieces of paper. This is no different than the real monopoly the US Govt has over Our national currency.
The 1% don't care about us, and we dont need their money to ensure our own middle class prosperity, so WHAT THE HELL ARE WE WAITING FOR???