Mr Piketty "believes that when wealth is concentrated in a few hands there follows a phenomenon he calls “state capture.” Rich people are able to get control of the government and use it like a Mafioso with a baseball bat: to whack their challengers and skim the profits.
But the state is no chaste and innocent participant. It is not “captured” at all. Instead, those with control of the police and the military are no strangers to the baseball bat; they use it regularly. In fact, they often take the rich hostage and demand as much ransom (taxes… bribes… campaign contributions… payoffs to special interests) as they can get from them. More often, they simply connive and conspire with any group that can help them – rich and poor, labour unions, business groups, lobbyists and so forth – always subverting capitalism and undermining the public welfare."
Thus comments Bill Bonner in his "Daily Reckoning" newsletter, commenting on T Piketty's "Capital in the 21st Century".
My view is that if everyone could vote on every issue there would be less opportunity for democracy to be captured by anyone. Interactive Democracy could be a free market of ideas, paid for in the currency of votes, an expression of the demand of the majority.
Bill continues with his theme on 1/5/14:
"The "market economy if left to itself, contains powerful forces of convergence in the distribution of wealth", he [Piketty] explains. But "it also contains powerful forces of divergence, which are potentially threatening to democratic societies and to the values of social justice on which they are based.”
Once again, he misunderstands the modern, democratic state. It is not based on real social justice. It is based on fraud. The masses are told that they control the government. And while they are earnestly reading the newspapers, arguing about Obamacare and voting, the elites profit from bailouts, zero-interest rate policies, subsidies, tariffs, sweetheart loans – you name it. That is how the rich got so rich... with the eager connivance of the authorities.
And now he concludes that the forces of ‘divergence’ – of wealth – are likely to be much more powerful in the 21st century and that someone needs to do something about it. Who? The same authorities who distracted the public while the elites picked their pockets."
Bill continues with his theme on 1/5/14:
"The "market economy if left to itself, contains powerful forces of convergence in the distribution of wealth", he [Piketty] explains. But "it also contains powerful forces of divergence, which are potentially threatening to democratic societies and to the values of social justice on which they are based.”
Once again, he misunderstands the modern, democratic state. It is not based on real social justice. It is based on fraud. The masses are told that they control the government. And while they are earnestly reading the newspapers, arguing about Obamacare and voting, the elites profit from bailouts, zero-interest rate policies, subsidies, tariffs, sweetheart loans – you name it. That is how the rich got so rich... with the eager connivance of the authorities.
And now he concludes that the forces of ‘divergence’ – of wealth – are likely to be much more powerful in the 21st century and that someone needs to do something about it. Who? The same authorities who distracted the public while the elites picked their pockets."
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