At the most basic level, a plutocracy is rule by the rich. The super rich have control over the political process, ensuring that the government and its officials no longer act in the interests of the general will, but rather of the particular wills of wealthy persons. Those affluent individuals are most often guilty of ignoring their social responsibilities in favour of widening their own hegemony. The rich place themselves above the people, above the government, and above the law, asserting their dominance through coercion, intimidation, brainwashing, bribery, blackmail, and propaganda. Plutocrats hijack the nation’s education system, enabling themselves to sway public intellectual debate in their favour.
The main vehicle plutocrats employ in their domination is an entity that lies outside the political process: the market economy. Plutocrats do everything in their power to ensure that the political process has little to no influence over the market, and aim ideally to ensure that the political process acts in the interests of the market and not in the interests of the general public. In a plutocracy the police and all the armed forces are under the command of a few loaded individuals.
Plutocrats operate globally, as long as they hold sway over an economy which is free from interference at the state or local level. They extend their influence, using the military to democratise other countries. In other words, they set up police-controlled, veiled plutocracies, and claim dominion over the people on a worldwide scale. The people are given the illusion of freedom: the democracy which is promised is merely a simulacrum, used to dupe a population into servitude. It is in fact a marketocracy, working in the interests of globalists and multinational corporations. In reality, elected officials are always in the pockets of their campaign sponsors. Qui bono? The plutocrats!
On Nov. 16, 2011, USA Today revealed that 57 members of Congress, republicans and democrats alike, are amongst the wealthiest top 1% of Americans. According to the article, “Congress also has 250 millionaires, the data shows. The median net worth: $891,506, almost nine times the typical household.” And in whose interests have these government officials been acting over the last decade? The answer is overwhelmingly in favour of the 1%, who now take 40% of the national income per year — that’s 18% more than a decade ago!
There is no question that America is a plutocracy. It’s run by private corporations, private banks, private lawyers, and private dynastic families of extreme wealth and privilege, who have no interest in the general will, no interest in educating the nation, nor in promoting universal fairness and justice. The land of opportunity is the desert of inequality, a bastion of nepotism, cronyism, and entrenched elitism.
The government of the people is run for the rich, by the rich. Plutocracy and free-market capitalist democracy are thus synonymous. Amoral and often immoral corporate entities are run by unelected, unaccountable officials. What we need is an end to all forms of dynastic wealth and privilege. An end to cutthroat, predatory capitalism, casino banking, speculative financial derivatives instruments, hedge funds, and too-big-to-fail banking institutions. An end to elite, private schools which are reserved for only the lucky few born into wealth. Instead we need a Merito-democratic Republic reflecting the general will of the populace. We need a stable economy run by meritorious experts, in the interests of the nation and its citizens. We need an optimised education system which ensures equal opportunities. We need a society of productive, smart, and actualised individuals whose talents have been maximised, and their potential fulfilled. The Meritocracy Party delivers all of the above. Demand an end to plutocracy. Deliver power to the people.
by Thomas Payne
Love this style of article: combining the facts with a high level overview. Short and to-the-point. Impossible to deny. Great job Thomas!