John D. Rockefeller and the other coal barons used the state militia to kill striking Colorado miners in the Ludlow Massacre of 1914. Andrew Carnegie brought in 10,000 Pinkertons and strike-breakers to crush the Homestead steel strike in 1892. Henry Ford used hoodlums and spies to crack open the heads of any workers harboring notions of forming a union. Now, it's more subtle. The wealthy can hire lobbyists to go to Washington to re-jigger the tax code or change government regulations to benefit their companies.
Capital is now global, and corporations answer to no one.
This is not rhetoric. This is reality. The declining standard of living of the average American worker can not be blamed on welfare mothers, immigrants, environmentalists, government bureaucracy or the many other scapegoats that the Right uses to camouflage the upward redistribution of wealth. It is the rich who continue to get richer and use a political system that they have fully bought and paid for to make sure things stay that way. They are the ones who want to eliminate social welfare programs and rewrite the law books so there are no limits to their profits.