Is the United States a democracy or plutocracy
Or oligarchy
Traditionally the United States likes to boast it’s a democracy and people voted for their political leaders. With the recent re-election of Trump and also with Elon Musk heavily involved in the last few months before the Nov 5 election, with his money and influence (think the X.com formerly Twitter.com). Also, it seems many tech billionaires are donating money to Trump’s inauguration, or dine with Trump. This YT Video HUGE Mistake Tech Bros! Cozying Up to Trump Will End BADLY (w/ Anne Applebaum) | The Bulwark Podcast explained some. ABC News (owned by Disney) bent knees too. Very few people and organizations are still standing there.
This led me to think the US is really a oligarchy or plutocracy. I googled those two words. And per Oxford Languages:
Oligarchy: a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution.
Plutocracy: “government by the wealthy”
Bernie Sanders thinks US is an oligarchy now too.
I came across this YT video - A Shocking New Look at the 2008 Housing Crisis | Amanpour and Company: in which you can see many of Trump economics advisors in his 1st administration (Jan 2017 to Jan 2021) are the people who benefited from the housing crisis in 2008. Quote the description of the YT video: Aaron Glantz’s award-winning investigative journalism has sparked over a dozen congressional hearings and criminal probes. His latest book, “Homewreckers,” takes a shocking new look at America’s 2008 housing crisis. It’s a tale of greed and corruption, as Glantz pulls back the curtain on a group of Wall Street magnates who he says took advantage of a rigged system. Moreover, as Glantz tells Hari Sreenivasan, these “homewreckers” include key members of President Trump’s inner circle.
Financial sector including the housing sector is a popular places the rich and connected continue to concentrate their wealth at the expense of ordinary people. Here is another example, YT video “Private Equity’s Ruthless Takeover Of The Last Affordable Housing In America”.
Note the Oligarchy or plutocracy is not isolated to the any presidency. I believe as a minimum, they existed in all the years since Clinton presidency. President Clinton signed up the initial NAFTA agreement, which had impact on the moving of manufacturing jobs to Mexico and Canada.
Synapse collapse
The fintech company that collapsed and took $90 million of people’s life savings with it: The collapse and bankruptcy of fintech middleman Synapse in May has left more than 100,000 Americans locked out of a collective $90 million of their own money, prompting a class action lawsuit. (I don’t know how much money can be recovered for the victims though).
One downside of the free speech in this country, is one can hear or see all kinds of shenanigans or “God damned lies” on TV (both network and cables), on radio, and the latest and greatest the social medias.
Examples of financial frauds in America I read today 11-22-2024 Friday:
CNBC: ‘I have no money’: Thousands of Americans see their savings vanish in Synapse fintech crisis : this one has impact to thousands of people. Here is a YouTube video that explains the situation – Yotta Bank & The Problem with Fintech! It’s somewhat to see Joe Rogan and Marc Andreessen talking about this. Note the Synapse was backed by the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. This is confirmed at their website too. Fat cats usually get away in this country, btw.
This happened under President Biden’s watch.
For example, George W Bush started the unnecessary Iraq war in 2003. Personally I think he is the worst US president since I came to the US in year 1997. But he needs to please his friends in the defense and the oil industry. The crazy part is the US congress, especially the supposedly independent US senate, went along with his invasion idea.
Barack Obama, tried to rescue or recover the economy from the housing/financial crisis, by injecting money into the large banks. And also gave out some real money to the home buyers. He also passed the affordable care act: which is quite controversial. Healthcare is such a big topic in the USA, and it probably merit a separate article. But I noticed “Barack Obama broke US healthcare. Only the Left refuses to admit it” (paywalled) by Dan McLaughlin (National Review) and it’s a good one. Obama continued and even did “surge” on the war in Afghanistan: and Noam Chomsky thinks Obama is worse than George Bush and Tony Blair says Noam Chomsky in this YT video.
PS: came across How to Survive the Broligarchy by
and it’s a good one.