The best democracy money can buy
The state is far from neutral—it acts in the interests of the dominant class in society.
In the U.S., economic power is concentrated at the top. According to United for a Fair Economy, the top 1 percent of U.S. households in 2001 had more wealth than the bottom 94 percent combined. And while there were more than 265 billionaires in the U.S., 34.5 million people lived below the poverty line.
In a society based on a massive concentration of wealth at the one end and poverty at the other, a single billionaire has far more political clout than even millions of poor people. The economic pecking order determines the political pecking order.
One has only to look at George W. Bush’s cabinet to see this. The business weekly Barron’s noted that Bush “already has presented the business community with the keys to the city. He has packed CEOs and industry lobbyists on transition teams that are advising his new cabinet secretaries and agency heads on pressing policy issues and new hires.”
The new Bush administration was more brazenly pro-business than Clinton and Gore. But money spoke loudly under the Democrats as well. “No administration in modem history has been as good for American business as the Clinton-Gore team,” wrote Clinton’s former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. “None has been as solicitous of the concerns of business leaders, none has generated as much profits for business.”
(via occupyla)
