WHILE mainstream democrats and republicans deny it, the current state of American politics and our economy is moving us closer to becoming a Third World plutocracy. We have not recovered from the 2008 recession, millions are still unemployed and underemployed. Wages are stagnant, the rich are getting richer, the poor, working class and middle class are loosing economic ground and struggle for survival in a state of economic uncertainty. The rich and corporate America control our government, and the military-industrial complex keeps us in a constant state of war, keeps us a warstate. Think this is an oversimplification of our nation today? Check out the articles from the Plutocracy Now series from +Mother Jones MAR/APR 2011 issue, consider your economic state of affairs then and now, honestly decide if you are actually better off than you were when the recession started in 2008, when these articles were published in 2011 and now. This is an election year, we all have a responsibility to vote, and if you want to know who the Bold Progressive candidates (those who are doing their best to represent the American people, not the rich and corp America) check out the PCCC. If you don't believe we are on the way to becoming a Third World plutocracy consider how more of the American 1% think it necessary to hire private security to keep them safe from the 99%, from +Mother Jones .....
| Sun Apr. 27, 2014 2:09 PM EDT
This
is a truly fascinating chart: countries with lots of income
inequality—driven largely by the gains of the ultra-rich—also spend more
and more of their money on security services. Gotta keep the hoi polloi
at bay somehow, after all. However, the researchers who produced 
the chart also add some appropriately scholarly cautions:
Actually, probably not. Eventually robots will provide better security services than fragile human beings, so the security forces will be out of jobs too. By then, however, even the ultra-wealthy won't care if robots produce enough to make life lovely for everyone. Sure, they'll still want their share of the still-scarce status goods—coastal property, penthouse apartments, original Rembrandts—but beyond that why should they care if everyone lives like kings? They won't, and we probably will. As long as we don't all kill ourselves first.
the chart also add some appropriately scholarly cautions:Does the graph show that inequality causes a country to devote more of its labor force to guard labor? It is hard to be sure. It could be that people with a strong commitment to economic justice are, for some unknown reason, also more law-abiding, explaining the difference between Denmark and the United States. But the correlation evident in the graph could be evidence that economic disparities push nations to devote more of their productive capacity to guarding people and property. Fear and distrust of one’s neighbors and fellow citizens fuel the demand for guard labor. Economic disparities can contribute to both. Among the countries shown, a common measure of distrust of strangers is strongly correlated with both the guard-labor fraction and inequality.Perhaps this is our dystopian, Piketty-esque future: a small class of ultra-wealthy rentiers; a breakdown of public safety because the rich employ their own private security forces and don't feel like funding anything further; a retainer class of managerial drones; and then everyone else—sullen and resentful, but kept in line by the hard men in dark glasses toting automatic weapons and driving armored limos.
Social spending, also, is strongly and inversely correlated with guard labor across the nations shown in the graph. There is a simple economic lesson here: A nation whose policies result in substantial inequalities may end up spending more on guns and getting less butter as a result.
Actually, probably not. Eventually robots will provide better security services than fragile human beings, so the security forces will be out of jobs too. By then, however, even the ultra-wealthy won't care if robots produce enough to make life lovely for everyone. Sure, they'll still want their share of the still-scarce status goods—coastal property, penthouse apartments, original Rembrandts—but beyond that why should they care if everyone lives like kings? They won't, and we probably will. As long as we don't all kill ourselves first.
Kevin Drum
- Why Screwing Unions Screws the Entire Middle Class Plus: How much income have you given up for the top 1 percent?
- Michael Dell: The Making of an American Oligarch How a homegrown geek outsourced, downsized, and tax-breaked his way to the top.
- America's Captains of Industry, Poverty Baron Edition How to get very rich off the backs of the working poor.
- Only Little People Pay Taxes Why a janitor ends up with a higher tax rate than a millionaire, and seven more charts that show how the richest Americans beat the IRS.
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