10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth and Power

Concentration of wealth yields concentration of power, particularly so as the cost of elections skyrockets, which forces the political parties into the pockets of major corporations. This political power quickly translates into legislation that increases the concentration of wealth, so fiscal policy like tax policy, deregulation, rules of corporate governance, and a whole variety of measures. Political measures designed to increase the concentration of wealth and power which in turn yields more political power to do the same thing, and that’s what we’ve been seeing.

So we have this kind of vicious cycle in progress.

It is so traditional that it was described by Adam Smith, in 1776, you read the famous Wealth of Nations, he says in England the principle architects of policy are the people who own the society, in his day merchants and manufacturers, and they make sure that their own interests are very well cared for however grievous the impact on the people of England or others.

Now it’s not merchants and manufacturers, it’s financial institutions and multinational corporations. The people who Adam Smith called the Masters of Mankind and they’re following the vile maxim All for ourselves and nothing for anyone else.

They’re just going to pursue policies that benefit them and harm everyone else. And in the absence of a general popular reaction, that’s pretty much what you’d expect.

Principle 1: Reduce Democracy

All through history there has been a clash, from the pressure for more freedom and democracy coming from below, and the efforts of elite control and domination coming from above.

It goes back tot he founding of the country, James Madison the main framer who was as much a believer in democracy as anybody in the world in that day, nevertheless felt that the Unites States system should be designed, and indeed with his initiative was designed, so that power should be in the hands of the wealthy “because the wealthy are the more responsible set of men”. Therefore the structure of the formal constitutional system placed most power in the hands of the Senate, remember the Senate was not elected in those days. It was selected from the wealthy.

Men, as Madison put it “had sympathy for property owners and their rights.”

If you read the debates of the constitutional convention, Madison said, “The major concern of the society has to be to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority.”

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If Athens were a democracy for free men, it would take away the property from the rich. Well same dilemma, they had opposite solutions. Aristotle proposed what we would nowadays call a welfare state. He said “try to reduce inequality”.

So same problem, opposite solutions, one is reduce inequality, you won’t have this problem. The other is reduce democracy.

If you look at the history of the United States it’s a constant struggle between these two tendencies. A democratizing tendency that’s mostly coming from the population, a pressure from below, and you get this constant battle going on, periods of regression, periods of progress.

The 1960s for example, were a period of significant democratization.

Sectors of the population that were usually passive and apathetic became organized, active, started pressing their demands. And they became more and more involved in the decision-making, activism and so on.

It just changed consciousness in a lot of ways.

Minority Rights.

If democracy means freedom, why aren’t our people free?

If democracy means justice, why don’t we have justice?

If democracy means equality, why don’t we have equality?** Dr. MLK**

Women’s Rights

This inhuman system of exploitation will change,

but only if we force it change, and force it together.

Environmental Rights

A unique day in American history is ending,

a day set aside for a nationwide outpouring of mankind seeking its own survival.

Opposition to Aggression

I say to those who criticize us for the militancy of our dissent

that if they are serious about law and order,

they should provide it for the Vietnamese people,

for our own black people, and for our own poor people.

Dr Benjamin Spock

Concern for other people

One day we must ask the question,

Why are there 40 million poor people in America?

When you begin to ask that question,

You’re raising a question about the economic system,

about a broader distribution of wealth,

the question of restructuring the whole of American society.

Dr. MLK

These are all civilizing effects and that caused great fear.

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Principle 2: Redesign the Economy

Fictionalization of the Economy

Offshoring of Production