Report- USA is now an oligarchy.

[AvgGuyIA]

What a crock of left wing shit propagated to us by a left wing homo propagandist poster! A blog from across the ocean opines about the opinions of a few insulated whities who apparently oppose capitalism and we're supposed to believe it?
We live in a dictatorship that confiscates half the wealth and manipulates the energy market in order to control the weak-minded and maintain a power base.

Why are you getting personal? There's no reason to call the OP a hateful name if you disagree with him unless your trying hard to not be taken seriously.

 

[francoHFW]

20-Screw useless charity- we need to tax the bloated rich their fair share and invest in the country and its people. Luckily, the good party is in power and is working on it.

 

[AvgGuyIA]

Screw useless charity- we need to tax the bloated rich their fair share and invest in the country and its people. Luckily, the good party is in power and is working on it.

When you confiscate all their wealth to fund your government what are you going to do for money the next year?

 

[whitehall]

The US is dominated by a rich and powerful elite.

So concludes a recent study by Princeton University Prof Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Prof Benjamin I Page.

This is not news, you say.

Perhaps, but the two professors have conducted exhaustive research to try to present data-driven support for this conclusion. Here's how they explain it:

Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.

In English: the wealthy few move policy, while the average American has little power.

The two professors came to this conclusion after reviewing answers to 1,779 survey questions asked between 1981 and 2002 on public policy issues. They broke the responses down by income level, and then determined how often certain income levels and organised interest groups saw their policy preferences enacted.

"A proposed policy change with low support among economically elite Americans (one-out-of-five in favour) is adopted only about 18% of the time," they write, "while a proposed change with high support (four-out-of-five in favour) is adopted about 45% of the time."

On the other hand:

When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organised interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the US political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favour policy change, they generally do not get it.

They conclude:

Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association and a widespread (if still contested) franchise. But we believe that if policymaking is dominated by powerful business organisations and a small number of affluent Americans, then America's claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened.

Eric Zuess, writing in Counterpunch, isn't surprised by the survey's results.

"American democracy is a sham, no matter how much it's pumped by the oligarchs who run the country (and who control the nation's "news" media)," he writes. "The US, in other words, is basically similar to Russia or most other dubious 'electoral' 'democratic' countries. We weren't formerly, but we clearly are now."

This is the "Duh Report", says Death and Taxes magazine's Robyn Pennacchia. Maybe, she writes, Americans should just accept their fate.

"Perhaps we ought to suck it up, admit we have a classist society and do like England where we have a House of Lords and a House of Commoners," she writes, "instead of pretending as though we all have some kind of equal opportunity here."

BBC News - Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy

Great job, Pubs and hater dupes! See sig pp 1.

Maybe some socialist Frenchie who had his DNA saved by the corporate and military/industrial might of the once most powerful Nation in the world doesn't understand the concept of the United States Constitution but the last time I looked the US government still worked for the people. Maybe radical Frenchies have a low opinion of the US Constitution thanks to George Soro's propaganda directed at the low information left but most rational Americans still understand that the power of the people is in the voting booth and thanks to five years of the Hussein administration one in six American males are still unemployed.

 

[RoshawnMarkwees]

What a crock of left wing shit propagated to us by a left wing homo propagandist poster! A blog from across the ocean opines about the opinions of a few insulated whities who apparently oppose capitalism and we're supposed to believe it?
We live in a dictatorship that confiscates half the wealth and manipulates the energy market in order to control the weak-minded and maintain a power base.

Why are you getting personal? There's no reason to call the OP a hateful name if you disagree with him unless your trying hard to not be taken seriously.

It's a response only to the fudgepacker OP who threw the initial personal attack.
I only go personal in response to a personal attack.

 

[CaféAuLait]

^^Pure brainwashed hate and idiocy- change the channel, hater dupe...

ALL FACT- look it up:

The USA is the only modern country in the world where full time workers live in poverty and have no health care (750k bankruptcies a year, most HAVE insurance - crap insurance!)After 30 years of Voodoo: worst min. wage, work conditions, illegal work safeguards, vacations, work week, college costs, rich/poor gap, upward social mobility, % homeless and in prison EVER, and in the modern world!!

Okay, what if I agree. Why do we 'dupes' keep electing the rich? Almost all of our reps in both parties are millionaires by hundreds of millions if not tens of millions.

The 50 Richest Members of Congress — 112th : Roll Call

It would be our fault, yes? Why do we keep shooting ourselves in the foot?

 

[occupied]

From the OP:


The policy preferences that were not enacted:

• Reduce the work week to 10 hours but pay for 40
• Pay our phone bill
• Free rent
• Give us a car
• Reparations
• Free electricity
• Legalize drugs
• Raise the minimum wage to $50 and hour to flip hamburgers
• Multiply welfare checks payouts by 10
• Triple food stamps and allow booze and cigarette purchases

Proof positive that the U.S. is an Oligarchy!!!

As ridiculous as those things are other equally ridiculous things like an end to capital gains taxes gets talked about a lot more than even the most minor help they could extend to people who actually work for a living. When is it their time? Conservatives talk all the time about doing things to make the billionaires happy while talking of the working poor like filth, we are an oligarchy and you are a fucking kiss-ass to them.

Conservatives believe that YOU are not ENTITLED to other peoples money.

Your idea of "helping" is appropriating other peoples money.

What are YOU doing personally to help?

What money are YOU giving to help the less fortunate?

The topic is oligarchy and what if anything we should do about it. Rather than default to a standard teardown of the welfare state how about you rub a couple of brain cells together and tell us how you can be so pro oligarchy and so anti government? You know the government and economy is essentially controlled by the super rich for their personal interests and yet hate the slim little part of it that must be maintained to continue the illusion of democracy.

 

[francoHFW]

Nothing about the constitution outlaws taxing the bloated rich their fair share or investing in the regular people...

Many thanks to Pubs for starting the great depression that gave us Hitler, and left France alone to fight him, dingbat...

 

[Clementine]

Well, the top 1% saw their wealth double under Obama while the middle class took huge hits. I guess we know where Dems really stand on this, don't we?

One of the lib networks said that Chelsea Clinton's baby will be the equivalent of the British royal baby.
The media treated Kennedy's like royalty.

So, why is anyone surprised to learn who government is loyal to?

 

[francoHFW]

^^Pure brainwashed hate and idiocy- change the channel, hater dupe...

ALL FACT- look it up:

The USA is the only modern country in the world where full time workers live in poverty and have no health care (750k bankruptcies a year, most HAVE insurance - crap insurance!)After 30 years of Voodoo: worst min. wage, work conditions, illegal work safeguards, vacations, work week, college costs, rich/poor gap, upward social mobility, % homeless and in prison EVER, and in the modern world!!

Okay, what if I agree. Why do we 'dupes' keep electing the rich? Almost all of our reps in both parties are millionaires by hundreds of millions if not tens of millions.

The 50 Richest Members of Congress — 112th : Roll Call

It would be our fault, yes? Why do we keep shooting ourselves in the foot?

Too many fall for Pub bs- the party of family values, national security, hard work...who the hell is against that? But you get the tyranny of the greedy idiot rich, not the rich who want to tax THEMSELVES more and help the nonrich and the country....

 

[Antares]

^^Pure brainwashed hate and idiocy- change the channel, hater dupe...

ALL FACT- look it up:

The USA is the only modern country in the world where full time workers live in poverty and have no health care (750k bankruptcies a year, most HAVE insurance - crap insurance!)After 30 years of Voodoo: worst min. wage, work conditions, illegal work safeguards, vacations, work week, college costs, rich/poor gap, upward social mobility, % homeless and in prison EVER, and in the modern world!!

Hey pussy show us where the article points out that "oligarchy" is comprised only of "righties".

What a stupid fuck you are.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

The US is dominated by a rich and powerful elite.

So concludes a recent study by Princeton University Prof Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Prof Benjamin I Page.

This is not news, you say.

Perhaps, but the two professors have conducted exhaustive research to try to present data-driven support for this conclusion. Here's how they explain it:

Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.

In English: the wealthy few move policy, while the average American has little power.

The two professors came to this conclusion after reviewing answers to 1,779 survey questions asked between 1981 and 2002 on public policy issues. They broke the responses down by income level, and then determined how often certain income levels and organised interest groups saw their policy preferences enacted.

"A proposed policy change with low support among economically elite Americans (one-out-of-five in favour) is adopted only about 18% of the time," they write, "while a proposed change with high support (four-out-of-five in favour) is adopted about 45% of the time."

On the other hand:

When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organised interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the US political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favour policy change, they generally do not get it.

They conclude:

Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association and a widespread (if still contested) franchise. But we believe that if policymaking is dominated by powerful business organisations and a small number of affluent Americans, then America's claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened.

Eric Zuess, writing in Counterpunch, isn't surprised by the survey's results.

"American democracy is a sham, no matter how much it's pumped by the oligarchs who run the country (and who control the nation's "news" media)," he writes. "The US, in other words, is basically similar to Russia or most other dubious 'electoral' 'democratic' countries. We weren't formerly, but we clearly are now."

This is the "Duh Report", says Death and Taxes magazine's Robyn Pennacchia. Maybe, she writes, Americans should just accept their fate.

"Perhaps we ought to suck it up, admit we have a classist society and do like England where we have a House of Lords and a House of Commoners," she writes, "instead of pretending as though we all have some kind of equal opportunity here."

BBC News - Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy

Great job, Pubs and hater dupes! See sig pp 1.

What is your solution, oh he who hates?

 

[francoHFW]

Well, the top 1% saw their wealth double under Obama while the middle class took huge hits. I guess we know where Dems really stand on this, don't we?

One of the lib networks said that Chelsea Clinton's baby will be the equivalent of the British royal baby.
The media treated Kennedy's like royalty.

So, why is anyone surprised to learn who government is loyal to?

Pub obstruction stopped all Obama's ideas but the stimulus and ACA. Only the bloated rich paying their fair share and more breaks and investment in the nonrich will change that...

Chelsea's kid will be nothing of the sort...link?Lib networks are PBS and MSNBC, certainly not the LSM- total cowards...- it's called real journalism and the truth. Even they are corporate cowards...

 

[CaféAuLait]

Nothing about the constitution outlaws taxing the bloated rich their fair share or investing in the regular people...

Many thanks to Pubs for starting the great depression that gave us Hitler, and left France alone to fight him, dingbat...

Hitler is the fault of the republicans too? I would think Hitler would be the fault of the man who co- created Nazism and Sturmabteilung AKA Brown shirts- Ernst Röhm.

Shit, if you want to blame republicans for Hitler I would think homosexuals would have an even bigger part in that. Don't you agree with the way you are reaching? Ernst Rohm was a homosexual as were most of his murderous, anti-Semitic men.


The Strange, Strange Story of the Gay Fascists

Johann Hari: The Strange, Strange Story of the Gay Fascists

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Röhm

Nazism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But of course stretching like that is ridiculous, right? GMAB!

 

[francoHFW]

The solution is taxing the boated rich their fair share and investing in the people and the country, so we have healthy DEMAND again. Just what our greedy, shortsighted RW is against. Ask the pope...lol

 

[Missourian]

As ridiculous as those things are other equally ridiculous things like an end to capital gains taxes gets talked about a lot more than even the most minor help they could extend to people who actually work for a living. When is it their time? Conservatives talk all the time about doing things to make the billionaires happy while talking of the working poor like filth, we are an oligarchy and you are a fucking kiss-ass to them.

Conservatives believe that YOU are not ENTITLED to other peoples money.

Your idea of "helping" is appropriating other peoples money.

What are YOU doing personally to help?

What money are YOU giving to help the less fortunate?

The topic is oligarchy and what if anything we should do about it. Rather than default to a standard teardown of the welfare state how about you rub a couple of brain cells together and tell us how you can be so pro oligarchy and so anti government? You know the government and economy is essentially controlled by the super rich for their personal interests and yet hate the slim little part of it that must be maintained to continue the illusion of democracy.

In other words, you do nothing but bitch about how somebody else owes you some of theirs...got it.

In reply, first - that Franco and a couple of professors who started with a conclusion and then gathered some "facts" to support it make a claim doesn't make it true.

Second, your idea of being "pro-oligarchy" is saying that a "fair share" of taxes is the same percentage paid by everyone.

That's a radical "pro-oligarchical" position, according to you...and yet it is already a HUGE concession.

A true "fair share" would be to divide the U.S. budget by the population and every citizen would pay that amount.

THAT, my friend, is a true fair share.

Argue with that.

Explain why some citizens should be required to pay more, while others, instead of sending in a check, GET a check culled from the funds of every tax payer.

 

[francoHFW]

Hitler and the Japanese militarists would never have happened without the Great Depression, caused by Pubs- who also led the isolationists who wrecked the League of Nations and allowed Hitler and the Japs to run wild until they finally attacked us...same economic chaos W Bush gave us that gives us so much chaos today...see jihadists and Ukraine, Egypt, Tunisia, etc etc etc...US lol. Pubs suq- ie, greedy megarich swine. Not you lol.

 

[occupied]

Conservatives believe that YOU are not ENTITLED to other peoples money.

Your idea of "helping" is appropriating other peoples money.

What are YOU doing personally to help?

What money are YOU giving to help the less fortunate?

The topic is oligarchy and what if anything we should do about it. Rather than default to a standard teardown of the welfare state how about you rub a couple of brain cells together and tell us how you can be so pro oligarchy and so anti government? You know the government and economy is essentially controlled by the super rich for their personal interests and yet hate the slim little part of it that must be maintained to continue the illusion of democracy.

In other words, you do nothing but bitch about how somebody else owes you some of theirs...got it.

In reply, first - that Franco and a couple of professors who started with a conclusion and then gathered some "facts" to support it make a claim doesn't make it true.

Second, your idea of being "pro-oligarchy" is saying that a "fair share" of taxes is the same percentage paid by everyone.

That's a radical "pro-oligarchical" position, according to you...and yet it is already a HUGE concession.

A true "fair share" would be to divide the U.S. budget by the population and every citizen would pay that amount.

THAT, my friend, is a true fair share.

Argue with that.

Explain why some citizens should be required to pay more, while others, instead of sending in a check, GET a check culled from the funds of every tax payer.

The so-called "flat tax" is another conservative idea that is a big giant gift to the super-rich and a giant ass-raping for the rest of us. why do you think they need more money and the working poor less? Do you even really think about your opinions?

 

[JWBooth]

The US is dominated by a rich and powerful elite.

Lol dumbass, like that hasn't been the case since the late 1700's.

 

[OKTexas]

Conservatives have no counter argument to this study because they know it's true, they just have the inexplicable opinion that billionaires have our best interests at heart.

Sure I do. Put the feds back into the constitutional box and you take away their ability to peddle their influence. As long as there is no limit to federal powers there is no limit how that power may be influenced by money. The founders got it right, we just fucked it up.