Is the United States an/becoming an oligarchical plutocracy?

[Thanatos]

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me, and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed." - Abraham Lincoln

Your thoughts on Lincoln? In your opinion, is he correct, and what is your rationale?

Personally, whilst I would not say that companies are anywhere near powerful enough (yet), trends are somewhat worrying to me.

[hippacrocafish]

Becoming? I'm pretty certain that we're already an Oligarchy of sorts, though not nearly as bad as places like Russia. I'm reminded of the recent Wikileaks fiasco where they claimed to have sensitive documents showing that a major American bank (Unnamed) was engaging in illegal activities and the government hired what basically amounts to a cyber mercenary (Who failed miserably, but that's besides the point) to take them, and Anonymous down, all because they threatened some of the most powerful corporations in our country. They have our government in their pocket to use as they please.

Source for this story, for good measure.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/...lobbyist-fight

[Floris V van Holland]

to late already happened.

if i would reside there i'd probably focus on helping break the lobbying down first.
limiting contributions to 20.000 $ would be a good start.
you can buy exactly nothing for such a sum in washington.

[♔DARTH LEGO♔]

showing that a major American bank (Unnamed) was engaging in illegal activities

.....isnt it a strange coincidence that that the Bank of America has been fingered for hiring tech companies to attack and possibly shut down wikileaks

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Excerpt:

In an interview published Monday, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange revealed that his whistleblower website intends to publish a trove of secret documents exposing the corruption of a major American bank.

He declined to say which bank, but he offered what may be a telling hint last year as to who the megaleak will target.

“At the moment, for example, we are sitting on 5GB from Bank of America, one of the executive’s hard drives,” Assange told the technology site Computer World in an article published on October 9, 2009.

The Wikileaks chief continued: “Now how do we present that? It’s a difficult problem. We could just dump it all into one giant Zip file, but we know for a fact that has limited impact. To have impact, it needs to be easy for people to dive in and search it and get something out of it.”

The Internet has been abuzz with speculations as to which bank the famous — or notorious — website will expose. Although Assange’s hint is far from a dead giveaway, his strategic approach to publishing secrets suggests that his next target may well be Bank of America, the nation’s largest bank in terms of assets.

BofA Fights back

[RollingWave]

On the brighter side, at least comparing to the gilded age US isn't THAT much of an oligarchical plutocracy. At least you don't have kids working 14hrs a day in factory that pays them nothing but bread.

[VALIS]

Isn't it already?

Doesn't 90% of the country's money belong to the top 1%?

[Armenum]

The heavy influence of lobby groups on the government make this possible in America.

[Sher Khan]

the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands

I think that's just called advertisement.

[Mythos]

Becoming? The US started as an oligarchic plutocracy, it has become worse in that aspect in the last 50 years.

[Dr. Croccer]

Becoming? The US started as an oligarchic plutocracy, it has become worse in that aspect in the last 50 years.

This, really. The US was highly socially stratified before it even existed, as it was necessary and common in colonial regions. When the traditional elite lost it's power it was replaced by a new, corporate one instead.

[Big War Bird]

In a word, no.

If a wealthy cliche were running the show then one would expect that the government would be run with some coherence with an eye on sustainability.

As I see it, the poltical system is starting to become unhinged. The great masses only have vague notions of the policies of the people voted into office. Expections and reality are becoming increasing distant. The result is sort of a schizophrenia in the government. Just two years ago a big government liberal was voted president. Just 2 months ago, prehaps the most fiscally conservative Congress in living memory was voted in. There is no consistancy.

[Matthias]

In a word, no.

If a wealthy cliche were running the show then one would expect that the government would be run with some coherence with an eye on sustainability.

As I see it, the poltical system is starting to become unhinged. The great masses only have vague notions of the policies of the people voted into office. Expections and reality are becoming increasing distant. The result is sort of a schizophrenia in the government. Just two years ago a big government liberal was voted president. Just 2 months ago, prehaps the most fiscally conservative Congress in living memory was voted in. There is no consistancy.

There has been consistancy in one respect. Corporations get what they want. Democrat or Republican. Doesn't matter. There's a reason Wall Street, which caused this economic situation, is still the same.

Wall Street doesn't care about sustainability. They only care about profits, insanely high profits that will see a lucky handful of people through the rest of their lives in disgusting opulence.

[Big War Bird]

There has been consistancy in one respect. Corporations get what they want. Democrat or Republican. Doesn't matter. There's a reason Wall Street, which caused this economic situation, is still the same.

So Enron got what it wanted? How about Bear Sterns? No, nearly everyone is getting what they want. Government, broadly speaking has been trying to be all things to all people.

Wall Street doesn't care about sustainability. They only care about profits, insanely high profits that will see a lucky handful of people through the rest of their lives in disgusting opulence.

You are projecting.

[hellheaven1987]

The democracy we have today is oligarchical plutocracy, come on, that is obvious...

Ancient Athenians would probably so shock if they learned their "democracy" has been twisted so badly by their descents.

[molonthegreat]

The democracy we have today is oligarchical plutocracy, come on, that is obvious...

Ancient Athenians would probably so shock if they learned their "democracy" has been twisted so badly by their descents.

They would truly have been shocked by the fact that women are allowed to vote and how easy it is to become a citizen in modern democracies. As for the Us becomiing a oligarchical plutocracy that's just bollocks.

[Thorn777]

So Enron got what it wanted? How about Bear Sterns? No, nearly everyone is getting what they want. Government, broadly speaking has been trying to be all things to all people.

I believe that is called "a haircut" in the métier. It grows back even fluffier and shinier.

[Matthias]

So Enron got what it wanted? How about Bear Sterns? No, nearly everyone is getting what they want. Government, broadly speaking has been trying to be all things to all people.

The Enron execus got off easy, and so yes, they got what they wanted.

Enron wasn't even Wall Street.

All of the bailed out banks got what they wanted. Hell, even the guys from Bear Stearns are probably living quite well right now. There are no real consequences for destroying the economy on Wall Street.

Wall Street gambles with America's money. When they lose, we pay. When they win, they become billionaires. And we still haven't clamped down on their risky practices, which is why I think the term "gamble" is appropriate. We need to break up the three largest banks which hold something like 80% of America's money or something. That's not economically healthy and is incredibally risky. If one goes down, we have another Great Depression. Don't keep all your eggs in one basket.

[Mythos]

So Enron got what it wanted? How about Bear Sterns? No, nearly everyone is getting what they want. Government, broadly speaking has been trying to be all things to all people..

Enron may have not gotten what it wanted, but Wall Street has. They wanted the deregulation of the financial markets, they pushed for it, they got it and now you have derivatives 10 times the world's GDP.

[removeduser_487563287433]

A son of a single mother and a foreigner is your President, having worked his way up through community projects and finally making himself a successful lawyer.

So no.

[raistlinmajere8]

A son of a single mother and a foreigner is your President, having worked his way up through community projects and finally making himself a successful lawyer.

So no.

More like got paid my uber rich companies. He would never have been able to become a Senator without some very rich and powerful companies giving him tons and tons and tons of money. What do they want in return? Hmm... I think that's become plainly obvious since his inauguration.

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/co...&cid=n00009638