
Study Finds The US Is An Oligarchy (2014) - doener
http://www.businessinsider.com/major-study-finds-that-the-us-is-an-oligarchy-2014-4?IR=T
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intralizee
There is nothing people can do. The only change will happen when the ones on
top, decide it's enough and that is unlikely. Everyone has become docile and
the old ways of getting people in power to do something doesn't work anymore.
Culture has even started evolving into a broadcast what I can get away with
doing and that shows how one sided the system has become.

~~~
smt88
People recently elected Ocasio-Cortez, which shook up the Democrats and helped
prove that money isn't a guarantee of an election win.

Clinton's loss moved the needle a bit, as well.

Change is frustratingly slow, but the best way to guarantee things will get
worse is to give up on small gestures toward change.

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amai
"It is accepted as democratic when public offices are allocated by lot; and as
oligarchic when they are filled by election." Aristotle, Politics 4.1294be

see
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition#Ancient_Athens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition#Ancient_Athens)

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sehugg
More detail from the authors: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-
cage/wp/2016/05/2...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-
cage/wp/2016/05/23/critics-challenge-our-portrait-of-americas-political-
inequality-heres-5-ways-they-are-wrong/?utm_term=.efb37e649642)

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gwbas1c
It's not just money, it's how we run our elections. A small minority pay
attention to primaries, and those people's interests are different. By the
time a general election comes, the candidates with broad appeal lost the
primary.

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courteouselk
And more recent independent research indicates that the water is wet

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Animats
That government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich shall not perish
from the earth.

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projectramo
Prediction: conservatives and liberals will both read this as confirming their
suspicions.

It would be interesting to note which policies are considered elitist so we
can see specifics.

I’m assuming on tax policy this study would vindicate the left but curious
about what other policies the “elite” like.

~~~
Hnrobert42
From the article: Realsearchers compared enacted policies to “the expressed
preferences of average Americans (50th percentile of income), affluent
Americans (90th percentile), and large special interests groups.”

Researchers did not evaluate legislation on its merits. Indeed, they did not
evaluate the legislation at all. They rely on work done by Gilens. Gilens
assembled a dataset of survey results about support for legislation in which
the income of the respondents is known. See Testing Theiretical Predictions
section of the full reseach article:
[https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/62327F513959D0A304D48...](https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B/core-
reader)

Economic-elite is defined as individuals with income at or above the top 10%.

Assume less. Read more.

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fallingfrog
This is from 2014. It's completely true, of course, but old news by this
point.

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legostormtroopr
Yeah, this is why people are mad now, and dare I say it exactly explains why
Trump won.

The fact that the US is run for the elites isn't something that happened in
the last year, its been that way for decades. Which is why when presented with
the option of re-electing a dynastic choice for President and a (on the
surface) political outsider who captured their rage, people voted for rage.

~~~
maxxxxx
People are angry about elites and somehow they could be convinced to vote for
a guy who is part of the elite, hires mainly people from the 0.1% and makes
policies for the 0.1%. In addition the Christian value voters could be
convinced to vote for a serial cheater and liar. That's true genius.

~~~
splintercell
> somehow they could be convinced to vote for a guy who is part of the elite

You're politically left, that's why you don't see it. This is your blindspot.

Trump could be the leader of the elites, but he doesn't act, or talk like the
'elite', and most important of all, nearly all the elites genuinely loathe and
hate him.

Bloomberg is part of the elite. If Bloomberg ran for election then the site
which hates elite will not vote for him.

In fact, even if he did talk exactly like how Bloomberg, Laureen Powell Jobs,
Zuckerberg, Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, etc talk, he is the anti-
elite because all the elites hate him.

It's sad that the who explicitly prefixes his claim as 'dare I say' is being
downvoted because you don't like what he said.

~~~
maxxxxx
In what sense is Trump not elite? He was born elite, grew up elite and does
things for the elite. In the context of the US being governed by and for the
rich he is part of that trend. Maybe he uses different talk than the elite you
mention. But they all have the same interest which is to amass as much money
as they can in their own hands. None of these people cares about making life
better for the average citizen. Maybe they do in an abstract sense but do
nothing (like me caring for poor people around the world and doing nothing).

The elite are the people with money. They have the real power.

~~~
splintercell
> In what sense is Trump not elite?

When did I say that he is not elite? That wasn't even remotely my point.

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maxxxxx
What was your point? I am curious.

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splintercell
Ok lets put it this way. Lets just say it is discovered that Jesus was
actually a banker himself. Does that really change the fact that he purged the
bankers/money changers form the temple of Jersualem?

And because he did that, do anti-bankers and money changers care about the
fact that Jesus himself was a banker and a money changer? Especially since the
banker community repeatedly comes to the television and talks about how Jesus
is breaking the fabric of our society and throws a barrage of anti-Jesus
message through media?

Look, Bernie Sanders made $1 million second year in a row, but do Democratic
Socialists care about it? He is far richer than most of his followers would
ever be, but if Jeff Bezos writes Editorials talking about how horrible Bernie
Sanders is, then it just gives Bernie more credibility, irrespective of his
newfound wealth.

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maxxxxx
The anti bankers should care if Jesus was a banker, did not purge the bankers
from the temple but the only thing he did was not to talk like a banker.

I think we are talking about the same thing. Watch what people do, not what
they say and not where they come from. Trump got elected by the little guy
because he talked for the little guy but in reality he is another rich guy who
acts for his people.

