America’s silent-but-deadly billionaires: How our tight-lipped overlords are waging stealth campaign

[applegrove]

America’s silent-but-deadly billionaires: How our tight-lipped overlords are waging stealth campaigns against the middle class
by Sean McElwee at Salon

http://www.salon.com/2015/09/05/americas_silent_but_deadly_billionaires_how_our_tight_lipped_overlords_are_waging_stealth_campaigns_against_the_middle_class/

"SNIP..............


While some billionaires, like Warren Buffett, are outspoken on political issues, most tend to say very little, or speak in vague generalities. But a new working paper by political scientists Benjamin Page, Jason Seawright and Matthew Lacombe finds that what billionaires say and what they do are dramatically different. While billionaires rarely go on the record discussing Social Security and taxes, they work behind the scenes to oppose policies favored by average Americans. Often, there are deep disconnects between what billionaires say regarding policies and which organizations they fund.

The new study examines an even smaller and more insular group than the previous work of Page and Seawright: the richest 100 American billionaires. Together, the billionaires were worth $1,291 billion (more than the entire GDP of Mexico). Obviously, the billionaires weren’t going to sit down for lengthy interviews on policy priorities. Instead, the authors combed through nearly every public statement by the billionaires on two subjects: tax policy and Social Security. The project required a massive amount of work: Lacombe spent nearly 400 hours conducting the related searches. One of the first things the authors find is that even the politically active wealthy rarely take overt public stances. They write, “The Koch brothers (David and Charles) are a leading example of this: they generally combine public silence about policy with large financial contributions to political causes.” Though they intend to contribute nearly a billion dollars to influence the 2016 election cycle, they “generally make only vague political comments, if any comment at all.”

The authors dub this “stealth politics.” Indeed, only 26 billionaires (a quarter) made any statements on tax policy over the last 10 years. Of these, the vast majority of statements came from a small but politically active and visible group: Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and George Soros, who made 65 comments in total. Even those statements tended to be vague and rather brief. More strikingly, only three of the billionaires made statements regarding Social Security. When billionaires do make statements, they appear to be a rather diverse and moderate group. As the chart shows, when speaking on most key issues, billionaires are split pretty evenly (although they tend to favor more carbon taxes, and fewer corporate taxes). But that billionaires were largely silent and moderate doesn’t mean they aren’t concerned with more radical policies.

The billionaires the authors examined were rather active politically. One-third either hosted a political fundraiser or bundled contributions for a candidate (this compares to one-fifth of the top 1 percent of the wealthiest and very few if any average Americans). A whopping 82% of the billionaires in the sample gave to political candidates in 2011-2012, and they gave, on average, $74,982 (that’s $20,000 more than the median household income in the United States).



...............SNIP"

[Faux pas]

1. Kickin'

[Coventina]

2. K&R

[LiberalAndProud]

3. For later reading. Thanks.

[rhett o rick]

4. It's a conspiracy. I no, I no the non-progressives don't want to hear about conspiracies. It's like

if they ignore the CT then everything is swell in River City. But the truth is that billionaires want to increase their wealth. And they have found that paying for think tanks, lobbyists and politicians gives the best results. Look at the last 40 years. It was a carefully enacted plan to strip the middle class of their tremendous combined wealth. AND THEY AIN'T DONE. But the non-progressives among us want to stay in their denial comfort bubbles and ignore the fact that poverty and homelessness are a huge problem. 22% of American children live in poverty and yet the non-progressives still don't understand that Goldman-Sachs doesn't care.

We need a change from the plutocratic oligarchy with their non-progressive puppets.

[Shandris]

6. I still haven't heard anyone explain exactly WHY we still need money.

I'd love to hear one of these billionaires expound on why the current nature of money is even necessary at all. There isn't a single other thing from 6,000 years ago that we still do every day except talk about how necessary money is. Any conversation assumes it must always exist.

I wonder who would benefit from that.

[rhett o rick]

11. Wealth is a measure of success. But wealth isn't the ulitimate goal, power is. Wealth

can buy power.

[PowerToThePeople]

13. Wealth is a measure of success?

Success at what?

Lying? Swindling? Union-busting? Offshoring jobs? Tax avoidance? Being born into a family of the prior "successful" people?

Our default assumption that "success" is a positive trait by default is wrong.

[rhett o rick]

15. I don't at all disagree. But our current culture see George Bush and Donald Trump as great

successes.

[Lars39]

14. "One man's conspiracy is another man's business plan."

[LuckyLib]

5. K and R

[raindaddy]

7. Let's hope this becomes a national discussion. And when it does we have one person to thank.........

for starting it..Bernie Sanders!

[applegrove]

8. Are you forgetting Occupy Wall Street?

[raindaddy]

9. You have a point.... OWS coined the term 1% and it entered into the main stream...

I believe Bernie as as a legitimate threat to Hillary Clinton, continually pressing specific issues has the potential to ignite more people than OWS. People are enraged and Bernie's excellent at pointing out how they're being screwed and who's doing it...

[PowerToThePeople]

16. I think OWS blazed the trail that Bernie is now able to take.

OWS

[cantbeserious]

10. Know Thy Enemy - Oligarchs, Corporations And Banks

eom

[Initech]

12. Stealth campaign?? It couldn't be more obvious that the billionaires are attempting to buy this one!

Shit, even one of their own is the front runner! How can the author call this a "stealth campaign"?