America’s Plutocrats Play the Political Ponies

[marmar]

from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:




America’s Plutocrats Play the Political Ponies
February 5, 2012

Any resemblance between democracy and U.S. Presidential politics has become, in our new super PAC era, purely coincidental. The only mystery: Why aren’t billionaires making even bigger bets?

By Sam Pizzigati


Life sometimes imitates art. Life also sometimes imitates political cliché. The cliché in this case: the notion that tunnel-vision political reporting has reduced campaigns for American public office to nothing more than mere “horse races.”

This year, in the struggle for the Republican Presidential nomination, that “horse race” analogy has essentially become a literal reflection of reality.

The real horse racing industry follows a simple time-worn pattern: A wealthy connoisseur of horse flesh buys a thoroughbred. The wealthy connoisseur keeps racing that thoroughbred until the connoisseur loses interest.

In the current GOP Presidential “horse race,” we see the exact same pattern. Wealthy connoisseurs of political talent pick a candidate. These wealthy connoisseurs then keep that candidate racing until they lose interest. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/americas-plutocrats-play-the-political-ponies/

[xchrom]

1. du rec. nt

[ciaoant1]

2. "Moral capitalism" and the rise of the "overclass"

A few days ago, English Prime Minister David Cameron made a speech on..."moral capitalism". There has been much talk about "reforming the system", and "doing something" about "the excesses" of the "golden boys" that led us where we are today. For the time being of course, all this talk is...just talk.

But, as history has proven, capitalism CAN make some "adjustments" - indeed, capitalism made some important reforms during the 1929 Great Crash (for example by breaking up the big banks, etc.).

But those reforms can only happen if the capitalists are pressured by the people. During the 1929 crisis, the worker's movement was much stronger than it is today, and communism was not a failed idea of the past. So, there was a lot more pressure by the people, and the capitalists had to make some concessions. And so they did.


What about today? Well, the capitalists don't really seem to be too bothered by the protests so far. But as the people become more and more aware of how their masters are bailing themselves out and leave nothing but scraps for the rest of us, they get more and more angry. So, the politicians of the ruling class start making promises to "do something" about the bonuses of the "golden boys" (who would have gone bankrupt if it wasn't for them). Of course, the only thing that the governments would have to do in order to punish the "golden boys" would be to stop the bailouts. But that's obviously “out of the question”, as the banks would all go bankrupt in an instant if that were to happen.

So, the theatrics begin in order to convince the masses that they are “doing something” to “fix the problem”:
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http://whataboutmarx.blogspot.com/2012/02/moral-capitalism-and-rise-of-overclass.html