Click here to access article by Chris Hellman and Mattea Kramer from TomDispatch. (You may need to scroll down to the article to skip the introduction.)
Political operatives of the One Percent rule mostly by deception simply because much of what they do serves the interests of only the One Percent. With the constant media barrage about the threats to national security and our "democratic way of life", they maintain illusions of serving the interests of society in general.
This sort of deception certainly applies to how much they spend on killing machines, soldiers who operate them, the care and treatment of disabled and traumatized soldiers returning from battle or occupation, how much is spent by outsourcing to private armies, how much is spent on police forces and equipment here in the US to control people who protest government policies, etc. The authors' accounting does not appear to include the costs of people (one out of every 32 Americans) in prison or under parole supervision.
There are so many hidden costs all of which serve mostly the One Percent in order to continue their control of our country and much of the world. The two authors try to put all the costs of killing, maiming, and intimidating together.
This illustrates once again what is required for a small minority of people to rule over a vast majority: deception and the use of force.
