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Health & Fitness

"You Can Have Wealth Concentrated in the Hands of a Few, or You Can Have Democracy; You Cannot Have Both." (Part 6)

We are close to the perfect storm in America. Either we address income and wealth inequality or we will experience the end of America's experiment with democracy.

Preface: This series of articles, detailing reflections from , will continue over the next week. I welcome any feedback. Miss earlier parts? .

Part 6. “You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or you can have democracy; you cannot have both.” The late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis.

We have reached an interesting tipping point in American politics. If you are unwilling to raise taxes, especially on the wealthy who have enjoyed disproportionally more tax breaks than the rest of us, and you simply wish to cut government, then most of the choices will require an undoing of programs that historically benefitted the non super wealthy.

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More to the point, these social programs, like Social Security and Medicare, made America a better country. The middle class, with its ethic that one can work and make a better life, is the spine of our country. So why is there an assault on the very programs that support the wellbeing of the general populace?

One can conjecture about that, but there is no debating that there will be devastating effects on all but the super wealthy individuals and corporations if the no-tax and deregulation advocates prevail.

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Congressman Ryan’s proposed budget is an example of the road map to ruination for the middle and working classes. The corporate media described his proposals as bold. The only thing bold about it is that he is not honest enough to tell the American public what will be the impact of his proposals.

His proposals are nothing other than an attempt to roll back the New Deal legislation enacted for the benefit of the majority of Americans. His small-government, deregulatory proposals are simply an attempt to undo everything from clean air and water legislation to financial regulations that have in the past attempted to protect the public welfare.

He, and his fellow conservatives and rich benefactors, don’t want Social Security or Medicare to be successful.

Ryan’s proposals typify a radical-right full-scale effort to prevent local, state, and the federal governments from protecting the health, safety and welfare of our citizens. The effort to emasculate government is working because of the massive amounts of money spent on campaigns and lobbying that have overwhelmed our political institutions at the federal and state levels.

When there is no realistic way for ordinary citizens, or public interest organizations, to raise comparable funding to counterbalance wealthy special interests, the special interests will ultimately achieve their goals. This trend is neither good for our cities nor for America.

We are close to the perfect storm in America. The concentration of corporate power and consolidations within the major industrial sectors have given rise to the unprecedented capability of powerful special interests to exert control over all levels of government. Every major industry, whether financial, media, defense or health care, is dominated only by a handful of players. Free market capitalism is a myth.

Even before the Citizens United decision, 130 S.Ct. 876 (2010), these special interest groups enjoyed access to and control over federal and state decision makers. Now, the Supreme Court has given a green light allowing for even a greater infusion of special interest money into the political system.

The corporate giants are joined by the beneficiaries of a massive redistribution of wealth that has concentrated billions of dollars in the hands of less than one tenth of 1 percent of Americans.

These wealthy corporate and individual special interests are using their resources to promote their radical right financial and social agenda. Legislative and judicial decisionmakers throughout the U.S. are becoming more and more beholden to a decidedly undemocratic influence.

If we allow our democratic institutions to be "bought" by the super rich, we will no longer have the democracy that this country’s forefathers envisioned, and that we as members of the general populace can look upon with pride.

America is considered one of the richest countries in the world. It will be shameful if we allow the vast majority of our population to be financially drained of our wherewithal to provide for our families’ security, wellbeing, medical care, educational opportunities, and an old age safe from the poor house.

This series will end tomorrow. Miss earlier parts? .

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