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You mention Billionaires giving money to politicians, yet fail to mention the money given to politicians by the unions, those in the media, etc.
It's irrelevant. Half of all political donations are large donations from individuals, (i.e. billionaires). Union donations are a small slice of the remainder.
Investors have a say because it's their money being used. Workers have no say because they have made an agreement to work for a wage, and in exchange will provide work.
If those workers want a say, they can invest.
It hasn't crossed your mind that in reality both have a saying. A worker cannot work without somebody putting out his capital. An investor can't create a business without workers.
This goes back to what I've been saying, so I'll quote Einstein:
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
When slavery was still legal people used to argue that "slavery had existed throughout history and was the natural state of mankind." Now it seems to most people that wage slavery is the natural state of society. Somebody in the comments above said we have a feudal system. I just call it wage slavery because the conditions were very different during feudalism (despite the similarities).
I have never made an agreement to this system. It is the law that forces people working this way. It's not that workers want to work for wages, it is the only option available. Workers don't want to become investors and control other people's lives by paying them how much is convenient for their pockets. They want a system in which profits which they rightfully help create is distributed more fairly.
But when this demand is made clear, investors run away to other workers who are more desperate, to china, india, etc.
It's irrelevant. Half of all political donations are large donations from individuals, (i.e. billionaires). Union donations are a small slice of the remainder.
They may not vote. Why bother? The country wasn't built for them. They may not have transportation.
I briefly worked in Indivisible and tried to get a young woman who felt helpless because she was ignored
and I tried to get her to stay in our group. She said they're ignored (the poor) and they are. I left because
with the cyber war by Russia, my focus was better spent focusing on that. She left because she knew she would be ignored outside of the group. I felt horrible for her.
I resent you're saying many poor people don't contribute. You tell me how they can? Move like those in, "The Grapes of Wrath," to pick fruits and live in horrible conditions (wait, they already do) then get ripped off by the farmers? Naw, that's for immigrants who work for peanuts. That's sarcastic but true. Those who are lucky enough to get a job work 2-3 jobs and still can't earn a living wage. Their voices don't count and haven't for decades if not since the beginning of our country.
No car to get to a job. No medical benefits. They live in often horrible ignored areas (see bushwhacked Hurricane Katrina, see orangeaid whacked Puerto Rico - I knew they'd be hurt badly due to racism and wham - they were). I'm sure Obama had his ignored poor as well.
Voting is ludicrous. If the poor can get to a voting place, they're often intimidated god knows how much I saw of that in the last fraudulent election. They weren't allowed to vote. They don't know how to fight back and that's the goal. Why vote - they get nothing out of it. That's part of the reason there's so much anger in this country. It's the elite (top-tier schools) who make the money. The rest of us are seeing what slavery looks like. Ironically, I've felt like this since high school - we were becoming a third world country and here we are.
Poor people don't purchase politicians either or have their pet politicians on speed dial.
There is a lot of money to be made in purchasing politicians.
This is really the bottom line of this entire thread:
The rich buy politicians and the bought and owned politicians make laws and regulations favoring the rich who bought and own them.
All else is just incidental b.s..
THIS is the key to why America is becoming like a 3rd world country and the middle class is being squeezed out into the poor class.
The rich have always done this in U.S. history, but the problem is now it is more of a science, more the rule than the exception. And with this Rule, the owners of the politicians rule and dominate everyone else.
There is so much incorrect with your post it is hard to know where to start.
First, there is no division between rich and poor: they both have the same rights guaranteed under the US Constitution. Each of us is free to choose. Each of us is free to participate in the economy however we wish to ("pursuit of happiness.")
Second, there has been no "near elimination of the middle class." That isn't even an alternative fact; it is a completely untrue statement. Pew Research says middle class income runs from $42,000 to $125,000 (before tax). They define middle as a household of three with an income that falls between two-thirds and double the median income. About 50% of America falls into the middle class.
Third, to the extent the middle class has contracted, it is largely because of an expansion of the upper-middle and upper class participation. In fact, since 1970, upper class has expanded by over 50% !!! That is a remarkable, laudable, positive achievement.
Fourth, your post shows a fundamental lack of analytical thought. Any individual person is not constrained to any income strata or wealth strata. People move from one to another all the time.
You know, when people just make stuff up, they lose all credibility.
You are saying I make stuff up and have no analytical thought? That sounds like a personal attack to me, and especially when I provide evidence of what I am saying.
Sure stats can be manipulated both ways. Which is why I am not attacking YOU personally even though I think you're wrong.
I don't watch MSNBC. But I bet you watch Faux News. Do you?
The Constitution's rights have nothing to do with the buying of politicians by the rich, which gives them the power to get richer at the expense of those who cannot afford to buy politicians. I really don't think our founding fathers intended for the rich to be able to buy politicians to do their bidding, yet if you believe that is NOT what is happening you must be delusional.
Poverty is what is expanding. Do you know that millions of American children go to bed hungry every night (so that the rich can enjoy more fancy cars and yachts, etc.)? https://abcnews.go.com/US/hunger_at_...ry?id=14367230
More class warfare B.S. Who takes the most risk? Who invests? Who creates jobs? Instead of hate, and class envy figure out how to be the 1% like many other people do.
Poverty is what is expanding. Do you know that millions of American children go to bed hungry every night (so that the rich can enjoy more fancy cars and yachts, etc.)? https://abcnews.go.com/US/hunger_at_...ry?id=14367230
Now tell me, "Greed is good!"
Your link is from 2011 and also does not say what you are saying. If you look at SNAP benefits you will see that is rose to record levels along with the recession and has then started to decline as the economy has recovered (yet is still above the levels prior to the recession). There is not one single piece of data that says that benefits are being cut to buy a rich guy a new car or yacht.
More class warfare B.S. Who takes the most risk? Who invests? Who creates jobs? Instead of hate, and class envy figure out how to be the 1% like many other people do.
Well said. It isn’t like these guys sat on their butts and one day woke up rich. While we were figuring out what major to study at our local state college, they were graduating with honors in Economics and Computer Science from Ivy Leagues, starting their own businesses, and creating wealth as soon as they had the chance.
Many people cannot match the background of Bezos and many other billionaires. It takes brilliance and hard work.
Quote:
Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and raised in Houston, Texas. He graduated from Princeton University in 1986 with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science. He worked on Wall Street in a variety of related fields from 1986 to early 1994. He founded Amazon in late 1994 on a cross-country road trip from New York City to Seattle. The company began as an online bookstore and has expanded to a variety of products and services, including video and audio streaming. It is currently the world's largest Internet sales online company, as well as the world's largest provider of cloud infrastructure services via its Amazon Web Services arm.
Bezos added to his business interests when he founded aerospace company Blue Origin in 2000. Blue Origin started test flights to space in 2015 and has plans to begin commercial suborbital human spaceflight in 2018. He purchased The Washington Post in 2013 for US$250 million in cash. Bezos manages other business investments through his venture capital fund, Bezos Expeditions.
Well said. It isn’t like these guys sat on their butts and one day woke up rich. While we were figuring out what major to study at our local state college, they were graduating with honors in Economics and Computer Science from Ivy Leagues, starting their own businesses, and creating wealth as soon as they had the chance.
Many people cannot match the background of Bezos and many other billionaires. It takes brilliance and hard work.
I think you, like most people here are missing the point of this discussion. What is being called into question is not how a very limited amount of people do very well, but the system as a whole.
For example, take vladimir putin, he is rich, has a successful career, and large support, even outside his country. But from a western point of view, he is surrounded by corruption, lack of democracy and limited freedom of the press. So yes, within the russian system he has worked real hard to be where he is, but you can bet there are many russians who would like to live in democracy, with a more transparent government, more freedoms, etc. Should russians just take for granted the system in which they live and not try to change it?
So within the current economic system, there is the chance that a very limited number of people can rise up in this rat race, but there is a growing number of people that feel that's not how life should be lived. Where not only human right, but also economic justice should be desired.
This can only be reached by rethinking human rights in relation to the economy and the real purpose of the economy. The economy is the system in which good and services are created, distributed and then consumed by people. It is NOT to create profits and accumulate them in a few hands. The capital accumulated should be used for investing for the consequent cycles of creating and consuming, NOT to be hidden in tax haven or played out in the stock market.
What a sorry state in which we live where people don't even know what human rights are, or worst yet how the economy should be run.
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Someone has been watching too much MSNBC. 
