Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Richest 20 People Have More Wealth Than Half Of All Americans

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Richest 20 People Have More Wealth Than Half Of All Americans

Click here to access article by Dan Wright posted on MintPress News. (Some editing of the following comments was done for clarity at 8:30 AM Seattle time on 12/6/2015.)

The author uses data from reform oriented Institute for Policy Studies, but reaches an insight that suggests reform is likely impossible: the control of our nation by wealthy capitalists has gone beyond what reform can undo.

What he doesn't understand is that this process of capitalist class dominance has been developing since at least the early part of the 20th century after the defeat of the Populist (read Democratic Promise by Lawrence Goodwyn) and radical labor movements, and finally achieved after WWII with the growth of secret agencies and the purge of all pro-social elements during the McCarthy period. The hidden capitalist directorate, which grew like a cancer within society, finally demonstrated their nearly absolute power over our nation with the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and many other important opposition figures during the 1960s.