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Forum Post: Our Government Today - Clearly it is a Plutocracy

Posted 12 years ago on March 3, 2012, 7:21 p.m. EST by Middleaged (5140)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

It appears most governments are vulnerable to forces or powers that want to decrease competition, control more of the economy, and make up their own rules of law or finance.

Is this topic too narrow? Shouldn't we survey all types of government.

The US has a Mixed Economy with a Limited Republic form of Government. This means we have social programs or have partial socialism. I can't believe that conservative really believe the crap they say about cutting social programs, since the rich get hurt when people begin to think Classism is abusive in their country.

  1. Traditional social democrats advocated the creation of socialism through political reforms by operating within the existing political system of capitalism. The social democratic movement sought to elect socialists to political office to implement reforms. The modern social democratic movement has abandoned the goal of moving toward a socialist economy and instead advocates for social reforms to improve capitalism, such as a welfare state and unemployment benefits. It is best demonstrated by the economic format which has been used in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland in the past few decades.[56] This approach been called the Nordic model.

  2. Libertarian socialism is a non-hierarchical, non-bureaucratic, stateless society without private property in the means of production. Libertarian socialists oppose all coercive forms of social organization, promote free association in place of government, and oppose the coercive social relations of capitalism, such as wage labor. They oppose hierarchical leadership structures, such as vanguard parties, and most are opposed to using the state to create socialism. Currents within libertarian socialism include Marxist tendencies such as left communism, council communism and autonomism, as well as non-Marxist movements such as Left anarchism, Communalism, Participism, and Inclusive Democracy.

  3. Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership or control of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy,[1] and a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises, common ownership, direct public ownership or autonomous state enterprises.[2] There are many variations of socialism

  4. As a political movement, socialism includes a diverse array of political philosophies, ranging from reformism to revolutionary socialism. Proponents of state socialism advocate for the nationalisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange as a strategy for implementing socialism. Social democrats advocate redistributive taxation in the form of social welfare and government regulation of capital within the framework of a market economy.

  5. Market socialism consists of publicly owned or cooperatively owned enterprises operating in a market economy. It is a system that utilizes the market and monetary prices for the allocation and accounting of the means of production, thereby retaining the process of capital accumulation. The profit generated would be used to directly remunerate employees or finance public institutions.[32] In state-oriented forms of market socialism, in which state enterprises attempt to maximise profit, the profits can be used to fund government programs and services through a social dividend, eliminating or greatly diminishing the need for various forms of taxation that exist in capitalist systems. China claims they are operating under Market Socialism.

  6. Communism is all but dead. No one takes it seriously. The GOP accuses Democrats of being communist just to score points. Communism is Centralized control, planning, and ownership of the means of production, of the Economy and everything.

  1. Free association (communism and anarchism) - In the anarchist, Marxist and socialist sense, free association (also called free association of producers or, as Marx often called it, community of freely associated individuals) is a kind of relation between individuals where there is no state, social class or authority, in a society that had abolished the private property of means of production. Once private property is abolished, individuals are no longer deprived of access to means of production so they can freely associate themselves (without social constraint) to produce and reproduce their own conditions of existence and fulfill their needs and desires.

  2. Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful,[1][2] or alternatively as opposing authority and hierarchical organization in the conduct of human relations.[3][4][5][6][7][8] Proponents of anarchism, known as "anarchists", advocate stateless societies based on non-hierarchical[3][9][10] voluntary associations.[11][12]

  3. There are many types and traditions of anarchism, not all of which are mutually exclusive.[13]

  4. Fascism is real. Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology.[1][2] Fascists seek rejuvenation of their nation based on commitment to an organic national community where its individuals are united together as one people in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood through a totalitarian single-party state that seeks the mass mobilization of a nation through discipline, indoctrination, physical education, and eugenics.[3][4]

  5. Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common interests.[1] Corporatism is theoretically based upon the interpretation of a community as an organic body.[2][3] The term corporatism is based on the Latin root "corp" meaning "body".[3]

  6. One of the main types of corporatism is economic tripartism involving negotiations between business, labour, and state interest groups to establish economic policy.[5]

  7. Corporatism is related to the sociological concept of structural functionalism.[6] Corporate social interaction is common within kinship groups such as families, clans and ethnicities.[7]

  8. Corporatist types of community and social interaction are common to many ideologies, including: absolutism, capitalism, conservatism, fascism, liberalism, progressivism, reactionism, social democracy (social corporatism), and syndicalism.[10]

  9. Plutocracy (from Greek πλουτοκρατία (ploutokratia); from Ancient Greek ploutos, meaning "wealth", and kratos, meaning "power, rule") is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. The combination of both plutocracy and oligarchy is called plutarchy.

  10. The wealthy minority may exert influence over the political arena via many methods. Most western democracies permit partisan organizations to raise funds for politicians, and political parties frequently accept significant donations from various individuals (either directly or through corporations or advocacy groups). These donations may be part of a cronyist or patronage system, in which major contributors and fund-raisers are rewarded with high-ranking government appointments.

  11. Within government bureaucracy, there is often the problem of a revolving door: the employees of government regulatory bodies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States, often transition to and from employment with the same companies they are supposed to regulate. This can result in regulations being changed or ignored to suit the needs of business, since the regulators are more likely to later find employment in the private sector if their government work was beneficial to their new potential employer.

  12. In the political jargon and propaganda of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, western democratic states were referred to as "plutocracies", with the implication being that a small number of extremely wealthy individuals were controlling the countries and holding them in ransom.[5] "Plutocracy" replaced "democracy" and "capitalism" as the principal fascist term for the United States and Great Britain during the Second World War.[5]

  13. Our Government Today - BGS or BPMIC (Banking Government System or Banking, Prison, Military Industrial Complex) or Clearly it is a Plutocracy

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[-] 1 points by Chugwunka (89) from Willows, CA 12 years ago

Very impressive post. Very good definitions of the various systems. And you have the correct definition of Corporatism, something many people botch. It was the system Mussolini installd in Fascist Italy. National Socialism was similar but had differences in various areas. Good post!

[-] 2 points by Middleaged (5140) 12 years ago

Thanks. It took quiet a while to paste it together. I'm probably a little lucky about getting things correct. As you can see the project was too long to post either in the initial article or in the comment section.

LOL

[-] 1 points by Middleaged (5140) 12 years ago
  1. Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common interests.[1] Corporatism is theoretically based upon the interpretation of a community as an organic body.[2][3] The term corporatism is based on the Latin root "corp" meaning "body".[3]

One of the main types of corporatism is economic tripartism involving negotiations between business, labour, and state interest groups to establish economic policy.[5]

Corporatism is related to the sociological concept of structural functionalism.[6] Corporate social interaction is common within kinship groups such as families, clans and ethnicities.[7]

Corporatist types of community and social interaction are common to many ideologies, including: absolutism, capitalism, conservatism, fascism, liberalism, progressivism, reactionism, social democracy (social corporatism), and syndicalism.[10]

  1. Plutocracy (from Greek πλουτοκρατία (ploutokratia); from Ancient Greek ploutos, meaning "wealth", and kratos, meaning "power, rule") is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. The combination of both plutocracy and oligarchy is called plutarchy.

The wealthy minority may exert influence over the political arena via many methods. Most western democracies permit partisan organizations to raise funds for politicians, and political parties frequently accept significant donations from various individuals (either directly or through corporations or advocacy groups). These donations may be part of a cronyist or patronage system, in which major contributors and fund-raisers are rewarded with high-ranking government appointments.

Within government bureaucracy, there is often the problem of a revolving door: the employees of government regulatory bodies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States, often transition to and from employment with the same companies they are supposed to regulate. This can result in regulations being changed or ignored to suit the needs of business, since the regulators are more likely to later find employment in the private sector if their government work was beneficial to their new potential employer.

In the political jargon and propaganda of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, western democratic states were referred to as "plutocracies", with the implication being that a small number of extremely wealthy individuals were controlling the countries and holding them in ransom.[5] "Plutocracy" replaced "democracy" and "capitalism" as the principal fascist term for the United States and Great Britain during the Second World War.[5]

  1. Chaebol (from chae: wealth or property + pŏl: faction or clan)[1] refers to a South Korean form of business conglomerate. They are global multinationals owning numerous international enterprises. The term is often used in a context similar to that of the English word "conglomerate". The term was first used in 1984.[1]

There are several dozen large Korean family-controlled corporate groups which fall under this definition. Through aggressive governmental support and finance[citation needed], some have become well-known international brand names, such as Samsung, Hyundai and LG.

The chaebol has also played a significant role in South Korean politics.

  1. A cabal is a group of people united in some close design together, usually to promote their private views and/or interests in a church, state, or other community, often by intrigue. Cabals are sometimes secret societies composed of a few designing persons, and at other times are manifestations of emergent behavior in society or governance on the part of a community of persons who have well established public affiliation or kinship.

  2. The Hongs - were major business houses in Canton and later Hong Kong with significant influence on patterns of consumerism, trade, manufacturing and other key areas of the economy. They were originally led by Howqua as head of the cohong.

  3. Zaibatsu (literally financial clique) is a Japanese term referring to industrial and financial business conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed for control over significant parts of the Japanese economy from the Meiji period until the end of World War II.

  4. Megacorporation" is a term popularized by William Gibson derived from the combination of the prefix mega- with the word corporation. It has become a term popularly used in cyberpunk literature. It refers to a corporation (normally fictional) that is a massive conglomerate, holding monopolistic or near-monopolistic control over multiple markets (thus exhibiting both a horizontal and a vertical monopoly). Megacorps are so powerful that they can ignore the law, possess their own heavily-armed (often military-sized) private armies, hold 'sovereign' territory, and possibly even act as outright governments.

  5. The Dutch East India Company was the first multinational corporation in the world to issue stock.[1] It was also arguably the world's first megacorporation, possessing quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, negotiate treaties, coin money, and establish colonies.[2]

  6. The Reedy Creek Improvement District Disney is one of the few multinational corporations to achieve a large degree of self-governmental control, in the Florida region known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Within this district, the Disney corporation has the legal authority to establish its own building codes, power plants, and utilities, fire departments, and to seize land outside the district under eminent domain. The corporation protects itself from outside interference by permitting only Disney employees to own land within the district, keeping voting power to elect district managers (also Disney employees) within company control, and thereby preventing restriction on company actions and projects within the district.[citation needed]

  7. The Hudson's Bay Company once owned most of the British colonies in Canada, where they were the only law enforcement agency and the main contact between the First Nations and British civilization.

  8. The (British) East India Company played the role of a megacorporation in India, raising its own army and administering large portions of the Indian subcontinent for 250 years, before being absorbed into the British Raj.

  9. The United Fruit Company had major influences on the structure of Central American governments in the early 20th century. They owned land and were in charge of the land and had an army to fight and guard it, along with the United States Armed Forces.

  1. Financial deregulation as the Result of Megacorporations:

  2. Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act.

  3. Garn–St. Germain Depository Institutions Act.
  4. Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act.
  5. In 2004, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relaxed the net capital rule.
  6. The Shadow Banking System arose without the same regulation as depository banks.
  7. Regulators and accounting standard-setters allowed depository banks such as Citigroup to move significant amounts of assets and liabilities off-balance sheet into complex legal entities called structured investment vehicles.
  8. U.S. Congress and President allowed the self-regulation of the over-the-counter derivatives market when they enacted the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_association_(communism_and_anarchism)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutocracy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaebol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega_Corporation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late-2000s_financial_crisis#Deregulation

It appears most governments are vulnerable to forces or powers that want to decrease competition, control more of the economy, and make up their own rules of law or finance. Look it up. We used to have the following Laws:

  1. The US Bill of Rights.

  2. AntiTrust Law.

  3. Glass–Steagall Act of 1933.

  4. The New Deal

    The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call the "3 Rs": Relief, Recovery, and Reform. That is, Relief for the unemployed and poor; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Deal