American plutocrats are running for political office across the country. Will democracy survive?
LES LEOPOLD, at Salon
https://www.salon.com/2017/10/08/camericas-plutocrats-are-running-for-political-office-across-the-country-can-our-democracy-survive_partner/
"SNIP...........
What Do These Elite Financiers Bring to Politics?
1. Hypocrisy
Every Illinois candidate claims to have the ability to make the hard choices needed to balance the state budget and bring fiscal sanity to the cash-strapped state. But these financial elites are one of the main reasons why the state is cash-strapped in the first place. Private equity managers are the beneficiaries of enormous tax breaks as well as having the ability to park their money offshore, far from American state, local and federal tax collectors. One of the most egregious tax breaks they profit from is the "carried interest" loophole which allows them to declare their income at the lower capital gains rate. The net effect is that they are likely to be paying a lower tax rate than their secretaries.
This loophole costs the federal government billions each year and no doubt costs Illinois tens of millions of dollars as well. Why should the richest of the rich get such a tax break? Because they have been able to buy the silence of both political parties.
2. Cluelessness About How We Live
In modern-day America it is impossible for a multi-millionaires and billionaires to understand how the rest of us live, just as it is impossible for us to imagine how we would think and act if we didn't have to worry about money. The wealthiest few live in their own rarified world. They have their own schools, their own clubs, their own shopping venues, their own healthcare and even their own transportation systems. They can sound empathetic, and can even mean it, but the chances of really feeling our deep-seated economic insecurities are slim to none. They are the great beneficiaries of runaway inequality and we are its victims. Their financial firms are the predators. We are the prey.
3. Entitlement
When you are super-rich and successful in finance, you truly believe you understand the world better than anyone else. This becomes reinforced on a daily basis by all those around you. Your subordinates are deferential. Naturally, they let you know in countless ways, large and small, that you are truly gifted and smart. You rarely experience an egalitarian situation where your voice is given no preference. And unless you are prosecuted, you never experience someone else having more power than you have.
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