3/4/2023 0 Comments Plutocracy trump![]() ![]() To put it simply, the solution has become part of the problem. This brings us to the heart of the argument of this essay. In short, if America has a problem, it also has a solution: democracy. As America has the world’s most robust democratic system, where the broad masses elect the leaders who in turn take care of the interests of the broad masses, any problem of “inequality” could eventually be fixed. And if the problem is “inequality,” then fortunately the problem can be solved. Yet what most of these articles emphasize is the growing “inequality” in America. Twenty-five years ago, the corresponding figures were 12% and 33%. Their lot in life has improved considerably. In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1% control 40%. The upper 1% of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income every year. In his brilliant May 2011 Vanity Fair article entitled, “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%,” Stiglitz opines that it’s no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. In addition to Giridharadas, who was cited earlier, distinguished American writers like Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Robert Reich have documented, for example, the growing inequality in America. To be fair, many American writers have written about the several dimensions of plutocracy in American society. Many Americans would assert no myths can survive in the robustly open environment of American society. Yet, even if contemporary Americans were to accept that there was “false consciousness” in the feudal era, they would contest the possibility of it emerging in modern American society, where the unique combination of the world’s freest and fiercely independent media, the best universities, the best-funded think tanks and the spirit of open and critical inquiry would expose any big “myth” that enveloped American society. If these consciousness-shaping mechanisms did not exist, then the underclass, always a majority, would quickly overthrow the system of their domination (Fig. Marx asserts that social mechanisms emerge in class society that systematically creates distortions, errors, and blind spots in the consciousness of the underclass. Members of a subordinate class (workers, peasants, serfs) suffer from false consciousness in that their mental representations of the social relations around them systematically conceal or obscure the realities of subordination, exploitation, and domination of those relations embody. According to Daniel Little, Chancellor Emeritus and Professor of Philosophy at University of Michigan-Dearborn, “false consciousness” is a concept derived from Marxist theory of social class. ![]() At the risk of quoting a politically controversial philosophical concept, let me mention a term used for this phenomenon: false consciousness. The kind and gentle feudal lords reinforced the myth. Why didn’t the majority of serfs overthrow the minority of feudal lords? A huge myth was created to generate a belief that this system was just. For centuries, European serfs accepted a feudal system in which they were second-class citizens (if not slaves) in a system dominated by feudal lords. Anand Giridharadas, a former New York Times columnist, has documented in great detail in his book Winners Take All (2018) how the dream of the American middle class has effectively evaporated. There is no shortage of data to drive home the point that there is no longer a level playing field in America. This is the reverse of how meritocracy should work.” Writing in the Financial Times in June 2019, Edward Luce provides one statistic to drive home this point: “Studies show that an eighth grade child from a lower income bracket who achieves maths results in the top quarter is less likely to graduate than a kid in the upper income bracket scored in the bottom quarter. By contrast, the affluent elites run downhill as the playing field is tilted in their favor. Today, when working class or even middle-class Americans have to compete with the affluent elites, they are not competing on a level playing field. So the first big question we need to address is this: is there a level playing field for the poor and rich? Most Americans believe that they have an equal opportunity to become billionaires. This is also why there is no social resentment of billionaires in America. Many Americans believe that their economic and political systems create a level playing field in which the poor and disadvantaged can rise to the top. The term “level playing field” is absolutely critical here. Equally critically, in terms of the economy, society, and political system there is a level playing field where the working classes, middle classes, and affluent elites compete. What is the actual difference between a democracy and a plutocracy? In a democracy, the masses broadly determine their future. Let’s begin to answer this question from the very beginning.
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