John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN INVESTMENTWATCH
“The Division Of Wealth Is Staggering And Growing And Historic In Proportions.”
That is over any period of time exactly the result capitalism produces. It is a very productive system, which tends to concentrate capital, but there is no accounting for political or social implications in its workings.
There's nothing unusual in the result, just that, for some years now, the American government has chosen to abandon one of the historic, legitimate, and important functions of a national government.
And that function is to set appropriate taxation to provide it with sufficient revenue to pay its own bills and to do some degree of redistribution to the bottom through any of various mechanisms and assistance.
This neglect of an historic role has many consequences which are extremely serious, including the concentration of political power in the hands of a few. After all, in politics, wealth cannot be ignored or denied.
Push this far enough, and you end up with plutocracy or a kind of aristocracy, names which might well be applied today to American government. Democratic institutions just become so much window dressing.
Surely, even conservatives recognize this danger.
It has been brought on by years of cheap politicians using phrases about individuals keeping the fruits of their own labor, etc.
You see, it isn't just a matter of helping others, it is a matter of keeping intact a society.
A whole new generation of monstrously powerful private entities has been permitted to grow dangerously large - as Google or Amazon or Facebook.
The neglect of the national government is seen too in the most laughable laws governing the role of money in election campaigns and the operating limits for lobbies.
Both of these things, right at the very center of power, are literally out of control in America, causing a rot which threatens everything.
