Monday, February 12, 2018

Rich people rule

Trump won in part because common ordinary people no longer believe government listens to them.  You and I know that Trump will make things even worse, but the idea that government no longer listens is understandable.  

Trump brags about the stock market rise, though not so much in the past two weeks.  Most of us aren’t much affected either by the bulls or the bears.  In the U.S. the richest 10% of the population owns 84% of all stock.  In case you are bad at math, I’ll do the numbers for you.  That means that 90% of the American people own 16% of the stocks.

Let’s turn from stocks to lobbying.  Lee Drutman, author of the 2015 book The Business of America is Lobbying, found that “For every dollar spent on lobbying by labor unions and public interest groups, large corporations and their associations spent $34.”  

Of the top 100 organizations that spend the most on lobbying, 95 consistently represent business interests.  


People have a right to be angry.  Too bad they were duped by a charlatan.

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