5 Reasons The Super Rich Need Government More Than The Rest Of Us

[xchrom]

http://www.nationofchange.org/five-reasons-super-rich-need-government-more-rest-us-1342445298

Wealthy individuals and corporations want us to believe they've made it on their own, without the help of government or the American people. Billionaire financier Sanford Weill blustered, "We didn't rely on somebody else to build what we built." He was echoing the words of his famous predecessor, the formidable financier J. P. Morgan, who spouted, "I owe the public nothing."

That's the bull of Wall Street. There are at least five good reasons why the wealthiest Americans need government as much as the rest of us, and probably more.

1. Security

In his "People's History," Howard Zinn described colonial opposition to inequality in 1765: "A shoemaker named Ebenezer Macintosh led a mob in destroying the house of a rich Boston merchant named Andrew Oliver. Two weeks later, the crowd turned to the home of Thomas Hutchinson, symbol of the rich elite who ruled the colonies in the name of England. They smashed up his house with axes, drank the wine in his wine cellar, and looted the house of its furniture and other objects. A report by colony officials to England said that this was part of a larger scheme in which the houses of fifteen rich people were to be destroyed, as part of 'a war of plunder, of general levelling and taking away the distinction of rich and poor.'"

***SNIP


2. Laws and Deregulations

The wealthiest Americans are the main beneficiaries of tax laws, property rights, zoning rules, patent and copyright provisions, trade pacts, antitrust legislation, and contract regulations. Tax loopholes allow them to store over $1 trillion in assets overseas.

[Wounded Bear]

1. What they need (and want) is to OWN the government...

it is our job to see that they can't buy it.

[ananda]

2. Maybe it is our job to see that they can't buy government..

.. but they have, still are, and we are miserably failing.

[Bluerthanblue]

3. THANK you for this-!

I'd read something similar a few years ago, and have been looking for this information to share with a few friends.



this is perfect.

[1StrongBlackMan]

4. Funny ...

We don't hear alot about this in the media?

I frequently counter the "Patriotic American Corporation" narrative with saying that Corporations know no national loyalty ... They ship there production to low-wage, low- regulation nation-states; they ship their cash to low tax nation-states; and, they shipping their executives to the U.S., where public dollars will provide for their personal protection and protection for their lifestyles.

[Blue Meany]

5. It's like Adam Smith said: the need for government arises from inequality...n/t