They’re all bought and sold: American democracy belongs to the billionaires now

[Minimalist]

Kleptoplutocracy.  Rule by rich thieves.

lol, i'm gonna use that.

Be my guest.  It's not copyrighted.

[GodCherry]

The shysters in D.C. have belonged to the rich for a very long time now.

Well, at least since 1978, when the supreme court ruled corporations are persons with person's rights to donate.

But rest assured, the rest of the world is only one step behind.

I remember when George Bush Jr said that we need to "trust that corporations will do the right thing" during a speech.

I almost vomited.

[Minimalist]

Dubya usually had that effect on me....no matter what he said.

[brewer]

Maybe the wealthy know better.

[Aegon]

Maybe the wealthy know better.

Not sure if you're serious, but the wealthy as a group are pretty ignorant of actual problems facing the middle and lower class. Hell, I find that many middle class people are ignorant of the problems facing the lower class (example: the idea that poor people just aren't working hard enough is an idea perpetuated by the wealthy and the middle class.) The wealthy are as wealthy as they are for a reason: they know how to protect their own interests. And those interests definitely conflict with the interests of the rest of us.

[brewer]

They know how not to be in the lower class. A lot came from there.

[Heat]

They know how not to be in the lower class. A lot came from there.

Yeah so are they going to help other people become wealthy, or ensure they stay wealthy? 

You're naive to think the upper class care about those in the lower class, all they want to do is keep ascending above not descend so others can ascend, with a few exceptions for people like Elon musk and such. As well a lot of billionaires inherited their wealth, so I don't know why you think a lot came from nothing.

[Ravenshire]

They know how not to be in the lower class. A lot came from there.

A few come from there. Most are riding their trust funds into oblivion.

[brewer]

Google "self made millionaire list" and start reading.

[GodCherry]

They know how not to be in the lower class. A lot came from there.

Actually it really depends on how they earned their money.

There are a lot of rich like Donald Trump or George Bush Jr who inherited their wealth.  The reason that Trump is  rich has little do with either his work ethic or his ingenuity.  Its because he's has unending access to credit.  If you or I had gone bankrupt as many times and to the extent that he has, no one ever lend us another dime.  His first business venture came right out of college when his father secured a 30 million dollar government investment.  How many kids out of college do you think get those kinds of opportunities?

I don't think Donald Trump is brilliant or intuitive in any way.  In fact, he's lived a very sheltered, hedonistic lifestyle which skews his vision of reality in a way that indicates that he probably has a serious borderline personality disorder. 

Then there's the whole class of the rich who make money by white collar crime. There's lots of those...particularly from the years when Reagan and Bush Jr were in office and removed massive amounts of regulation.  

Now someone like Warren Buffet....I think might be very much worth listening to.  He made his money by working hard.  He's more likely to understand the plight of normal, hard-working Americans.