Exhortation II
3. Identifying America’s Decline Into Oligarchy
Oligarchy: a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution. (Dictionary.com)
18: 1 The rich have always been in control. No matter how far back you turn the clock there have always been the wealthy and powerful. 18: 2 However, certain pivotal political events in the last forty years have paved a straight path to extreme income inequality and a disproportionate political power ratio. 18: 3 Prominent examples are the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, the Tax Reform Act of 1986, Citizens United (2010), and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (2017). 18: 4 The prosperity of the middle class in the late ‘40s, and into the ‘60s, is baffling. Considering the US was built on slavery, colonialism, and manifest destiny.
18: 5 There have been rigid class differentiations since colonial times. So why after WW2 was the middle class allowed the same growth trajectory as the country’s GDP?
18: 6 Were the Power Elite (PE) concerned about hundreds of thousands of battle-hardened men coming back united from war and taking power by force? Did the PE feel they needed to re-domesticate and placate their created war machine?
18: 7 Did the PE know that they still had one huge payday yet to come, Vietnam? 18: 8 The PE would once again draft the poor into a conflict and make trillions of dollars.
18: 9 However, the middle class needed to be pacified and propagandized into hating socialism and communism to the point they would be willing to lose their sons and daughters fighting it.
18: 10 After Vietnam however, it was clear the average American was no longer going to tolerate concocted high-intensity conflicts where tens of thousands were going to die. 18: 11 So the PE adapted, once they rang out as much death and profit as they could from Vietnam they changed their tactics.
18: 12 They would now take directly from the lower and middle classes, through tax cuts for corporations and top-tier tax brackets, inflation, price gauging, and very extended low-intensity conflicts in which the death toll would be politically tolerable.
18: 13 Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981
This was the beginning of the assault on the wealth of the middle class. 18: 14 It introduced the lie of “trickle-down economics.” The plan was to make the lower and middle classes believe a massive tax cut for the rich would spur economic and job growth. 18: 15 ERTA lowered the top tax bracket from 70 to 50%, additionally, capital gains tax, (a tax on the profits of wealthy investors) was lowered from 28% to 20%. 18: 16 ERTA was only the first part of the plan to drain the middle class and guarantee large-scale income inequality. (Kagan, 2020)
18: 17 Tax Reform Act of 1986
Emboldened by ERTA, Reagan in his second term unveiled the Tax Reform Act of 1986. 18: 18 Cutting again the top tax bracket from 50% to 28%, and long-term capital gains were raised to 28%. However, the corporate tax rate (the tax on the profits of corporations) was cut from 50% to 35%, and the bottom tax rate was actually raised from 11% to 15%. 18: 19 These two tax cuts pushed the deficit to 2.6 trillion dollars by the end of 1988. (Kagan, 2020)
18: 20 You see, the wealthy do not need infrastructure, they do not need insurance, and they do not need a social safety net for when they become unemployed. 18: 21 All they need is a safe place to protect their assets, the military to exploit and take, and a police force to protect them from the peasants. (Kagan, 2020)
18: 22 Citizens United (2010)
The politicized Supreme Court through its Citizens United ruling allowed the formation of super PACs which means unlimited spending on elections with no way of knowing who the financier is, what they stand for, or what government or ideology they represent. 18: 23 We know that if a candidate takes money from super PACs they are beholden to the group that has financed them. 18: 24 They can shape legislation, confirm federal judges, and promote foreign policy while being controlled by unknown donors.
18: 25 A citizen has only one vote, but because of Citizens United, the PE owns politicians outright regardless of the platform or promises they made while running for office.
18: 26 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (2017)
Under the TCJA the corporate tax was cut permanently to 21%. However, as we have seen many of the richest corporations paid 0 in taxes. 18: 27 In response to the recession of 2008, President Obama reversed rates on the highest individual brackets. The TCJA once again lowered the highest bracket from 39.6% to 37%.
18: 28 The US now unquestionably has an oligarchy in power. Wealth inequality has taken much of the power of the lower classes away. All are in lifelong debt. 18: 29 The Power Elite controls not only elections but many of the politicians. What is their end game? Complete control, dominion over all, suffering for all. 18: 30 Since 1900 progressives in the US government have been assassinated at a rate of 3:1 to their conservative counterparts. Coincidence? Or part of the same plan, the PE is playing by an entirely different set of rules than the rest of us, we must use numbers to forge equity.
References
Kagan, Julia. (2020).Economic c Recovery Act of 1981 ERTA. Tax Reform Act of 1986. Investopedia.