Well, Du-uh... America Now Oligarchy, Not Democracy — Princeton Study

Brendan James at TPM:

A new study from Princeton spells bad news for American democracy—namely, that it no longer exists.

Asking "[w]ho really rules?" researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page argue that over the past few decades America's political system has slowly transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where wealthy elites wield most power.

Using data drawn from over 1,800 different policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002, the two conclude that rich, well-connected individuals on the political scene now steer the direction of the country, regardless of or even against the will of the majority of voters.

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Mr. James appears to be a young man, but damn, he's learning fast...

Americans In Poverty By The Numbers: Bad, Getting Worse

Greg Kaufmann (Center for American Progress; The Nation, BillMoyers.com) lists a couple of dozen numbers depicting poverty in America, often comparing the most recent figures available with those of a decade or more ago. The short version: American poverty is bad and getting worse. Astonishing numbers of American families live in poverty; even more astonishing numbers of Blacks, Hispanics and female heads of households live in poverty. Notwithstanding the words of Paul Ryan (R-Hell), federal antipoverty programs actually can and do make a difference; in this context, Social Security retirement and disability are also antipoverty programs (remember that when Mr. Obama and his Republican buddies start blathering about any sort of "grand bargain" that would compromise SocSec).

I have never lived in poverty, though my father and mother came damned close when I was a child: later in my adolescence, Dad often reminisced about the Christmas in my childhood in which we had $3.00 (three dollars) left in the bank. The times and policies of both the federal government and many employers were kinder than they are today, and we didn't have a Republican Party full of Paul Ryans from the pits of Hell, trying their damnedest to toss people straight into poverty. My family's experiences are a good example of the possibility of a whole society of people, of many different levels of income and wealth, all living life adequately fed and clothed, none suffering abject hunger, all adequately medically cared for. But for that to be the sustainable state of America today, our leaders have to stop lying about what it costs to secure a minimum healthful livelihood for everyone... and the extremely wealthy must be stopped, the sooner the better, from buying our government for their own purposes, which usually involve making themselves even wealthier. To provide the best for anyone, America must provide an adequate life for everyone. It's that simple.

Economic ‘Recovery’? Who Recovers And Who Does Not

Via Robert Reich, here's information from The Levy Institute of Bard College (.pdf):

For the vast majority of people in the United States, economic growth has become little more than a statistical sideshow, largely disconnected from their paychecks. This is starkly illustrated in the figure below, which shows how income growth has become more inequitably distributed with virtually every subsequent economic expansion during the postwar period.

In the 1949–53 expansion, the overwhelming majority of the income growth went to the overwhelming majority of the people—the bottom 90 percent of the income distribution. After that, the bottom 90 percent’s share of income gains gradually shrunk, decade by decade. This trend accelerated in the 1980s, to the point that the richest 10 percent began receiving the majority of the income growth. And from 2009 through 2012, while the economy was recovering from one of the biggest economic downturns in recent memory, 116 percent of the income growth went to the top 10 percent (with the top 1 percent alone taking home 95 percent of the income gains); this absurd result is possible because the bottom 90 percent actually saw their incomes fall, on average, during this growth period.

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(See linked article for the figure referred to above.)

This trend and its consequences in people's lives are utterly unjust. Worse, action by a government in facilitating such outright robbery of the poor and the middle class by the very rich is the stuff of which revolutions are made... read America's Declaration of Independence, and note how many of the reasons given for revolt are economic in character. The 1% has basically one choice in its own self-interest: revise the rules to reinstitute a prosperous middle class and substantially reduce poverty. Not that those people listen to me...

Read And Watch: Influence On Yer Feral Gummint's Policies? You Ain't Got None!

Not yours... belongs
to the wealthiest 1%

jbade at FDL and Cenk Uygur and a couple other guys including one named George Carlin on YouTube tell us how it is: Influence by Economic elite? Check! Influence by lobbies and PACs? Check! Influence by people near median income? That's a big negatory, good buddy!

Uygur gives a good summary of the "oligarchy" business. How about that... we're a lot like Russia. And things have been getting steadily worse... more unequal wealth distribution... for at least the past 30 years or so. Are you surprised? Really?