In the U.S. current income disparities threaten democratic ideals

I would like to open with with a few quotes "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defianceto the laws of our country." : Thomas Jefferson "Representative government is artifice, a political myth, designed to conceal from the masses the dominance of a self-selected, self-perpetuating, and self-serving traditional ruling class." ï¿½€ï¿½ Giuseppe Prezzolini We're not a democracy. It's a terrible misunderstanding and a slander to the idea of democracy to call us that. In reality, we're a plutocracy: a government by the wealthy." : Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." Thomas Jefferson "I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men." Woodrow Wilson (speaking of his collusion in the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank of America in 1913) "Allow me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who writes the laws." Mayer Amschel Rothschild (banker extraordinaire and war-bankroller) "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." -- Wendell Phillips All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind. Adam Smith Contention 1: The idea of a democracy is by definition "A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.". Thus it is reasonable to conclude that what the majority wants is what will generally be provided. However this is not the case. The Supreme court ruled in Buckly vs Valeo that money is speech. With that being said speech is protected by the first amendment. When a small of wealthy individuals are able to buy seats in the government it is no longer the government of the people.(plutocracy) Contention 2: Elected officials are propped up during elections, or bought during their term. This is a serious allegation, but sadly it is true for the most part. I'm not saying that congress members are openly selling their votes to the highest bidder they tend to be more subtle then this, however there are currently 14,000 registered lobbyists in Washington and they do heavily influence the way members vote. As i mentioned there are 14,000 registered lobbyists and many more unregistered lobbyists (i use the term unregistered lobbyists because these lobbyists who try to influence members of congress whom are within their proximity of business , such as a Michigan steel company or a seed corp in Kansas) that's roughly 4 lobbyists for every elected official. These lobbyists are in constant contact with these officials and are always trying to push their company or organization's agenda. The ironic thing about electing our officials this is that, the members we elect often hold their constituents concerns second then that of the donors who are funding his campaign. More often then enough, politicians vote against their ideals or the wants of their constituents so that they will continue to receive money to stay in power. There has been a steady increase of money spent on lobbying peaking at 3.5 billion in 2010. 3.5 billion is a lot of money invested in getting a firm's or organization's voice heard. With all businesses many of these firms expect a return on their investments. Many of these returns come in forms of tax breaks, loosen regulation ect. This concept is not new to man, when King George was in power he often bought votes in parliament with his enormous wealth and power. He offered them financial security or a appointed position if they pushed his agenda. This practice was not frowned upon by their fellow parliament members, it was viewed as business as usual. Contention 3: If money is speech then why do some of us have more speech then others? The Supreme Court declared that money was considered speech, and speech is protected by the first amendment. The Supreme court stated that a corporation donate as much as they want to influence the election. According to these figures [1][2] the top 10% of the nation owns roughly 70% of the nations wealth. Thus the top 10% owns 70% of the speech in America. In a nation that values it's "one man one vote" it's ironic that such a small group has so much influence over the policies in the united states. Contention 4: Well if we don't like our official then we can always just vote him out right? Wrong. Well in most cases this is wrong or very difficult to achieve. Incumbents have a reelection rate or roughly 80% for congress [3] with help of gerrymandering, political bigotry and the big bucks lobbyists pay to help get these members re elected. It would require a massive organized movement and a lot of cash to elect a new member to congress if the member seeking reelection is in a politically safe district. Contention 5: As a whole the top brackets benefited from tax breaks and deregulation. As shown in the these graphs [4][5] the top who are effectively influencing the government by pushing their agendas for deregulation, tax breaks and more privatization. Deregulation has always been the agenda of the merchant class, to allow for dangerous business decisions or increased CEO pay at the worker's expense. (such as the payment of CEO bonuses to be drained from worker pension funds due to loop holes). CEO and pay and bonuses have been skyrocketing since the 60's [6][7] while the poor have seen a decrease in income, and the middle class has seen a near wage stall. I'm not undermining the decisions and the work the CEOs put into their companies, however if we look at the pay of Ceo to worker around the world you would see that compare the the average worker the CEO is grossly overpaid to even the most industrialized countries. [8] Contention 6: Time to face the music we are living in a plutocracy. Contention 6 in my opinion is the most important point i can make. The point being that Citi Group even admitted that we were living a plutocracy. [9] In a leaked memo to three of their most important investors they describe what a plutocracy is and how they can continue to "ride the gravy train". They even admit that "At the heart of plutonomy, is income inequality. Societies that are willing to tolerate/endorse income inequality, are willing to tolerate/endorse plutonomy". They admit that they are in control and they have subdued the people by making them believe that they too can be "rich" [1] http://assets.motherjones.com... [2] http://assets.motherjones.com... [3] http://www.opensecrets.org... [4] https://motherjones.com... [5] http://assets.motherjones.com... [6] http://thinkprogress.org... [7] http://assets.motherjones.com...'swinning_3.png [8] http://static.politifact.com.s3.amazonaws.com... [9] http://theparagraph.com... ^Very important