Did you know that in the ancient world there were regular examples of public debt forgiveness? Yes, even in those more brutal times elites recognised the dangers of social discordance. The masses were more likely to rise up if they were burdened with lifetime unforgiving debt. Have we reached that nadir with Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, going on stage with a chainsaw to represent the slashing of social security for tens of millions of the poorest Americans? Meanwhile, the wealth of the top 1% has skyrocketed under President Donald Trump’s billionaire friendly tax bills. Billionaires have never been less popular in the United States and globally.
“Research suggests that societies in ancient Mesopotamia used cycles of debt forgiveness to escape the debt trap. For example, this was a practice in ancient Sumer in the 3rd millennium BC, and in the old Babylonian Empire and its neighbours in the 2nd millennium BC.”
Billionaires & The Oligarchy
I divide the Right and the Left into two camps based on their economic and social beliefs. The Right believe in a zero sum game of winners and losers. The Left believe we are all in this together and should be governed on this basis of fairness, wherever possible. Neoliberalism has driven governments over the last 50 years, since Reagan and Thatcher. The tenets of neoliberalism are small government getting out of the way of market forces or, indeed, facilitating the interests of oligarchs and their corporate interests. The notorious ‘trickledown effect’ was promised for the hoi poloi, when it came to any sharing of that wealth. The figures show that the top 1% have become extraordinarily wealthy and the rest of us have gone nowhere in terms of economic growth. Inflation has seen prices go up, wages have not kept pace and only those with assets have kept them from the taxman’s take. CEOs now earn something like 1700 times what their workers do, whereas it was only around 45 times about 50 years ago. Stock buybacks have created the billionaire factory for these executives. Meanwhile, workers are less well off than their parent’s generation were.
Social Discord & The Rise Of The Billionaire Class
This is what you get when the political system has been captured by the wealthy and powerful to the detriment of the many ordinary folk. There are still those on the Right voting for the oligarchs in the hope that they will be on the winning side of the ledger. This is why many Americans voted for Donald Trump, both times. Trump 2.0 has a number of them regretting their choice at the last presidential election. The Democrats under President Joe Biden attempted to instigate student loan debt forgiveness but this was undone by the Republican dominated Supreme Court. It seems that wealthy Republicans are not in favour of taking the foot off the throat when it comes to such things as public debt forgiveness. It will be interesting to see what the upshot of this will be down the track. Social cohesion and the economic burden foisted upon future generations is not their concern, apparently.
Democratic Power Devolving Into Oligarchy
Oligarchies believe that if you look after the wealthy and powerful, everyone else, the lesser folk, will fall into line behind them. Screwing the working poor economically is their modus operandi. Anyone with a basic understanding of mathematics would know that for every billionaire you have to have a lot of losers or worse off folk. Equality and social equity does not work when a few have ownership of a third of the total pie! The pieces left over for the many are miniscule.
“Since 1989, the share of America’s wealth held by the nation’s wealthiest has risen steadily. Federal Reserve data shows that the richest 10 percent of American households now own over two-thirds of the nation’s total wealth. The top 1 percent holds 31.0 percent of total wealth – just slightly less than the entire bottom 90 percent of U.S. households. Another indicator of wealth concentration: the richest 1 percent own 50 percent of U.S. stock and mutual funds, up from 40 percent in 2002, according to Federal Reserve data.”
It is strange that every night on the news, that we all used to watch, the stock market is featured in a regular spot. Whereas the labour market and wage data is hardly ever featured. What does this tell you about who is considered important and who is not? The wealthy versus the rest of us.
Social Discordance Leads To Upheaval
Every social revolution and overthrow of the elite in history has been preceded by extreme inequality and social division. Eat the rich will soon be no laughing matter, I predict. The reckless and brutal display of authoritarianism by the Trump regime will not pass unheeded by the many. As the unaffordability of the Trump economy increases and his profligate spending on ballrooms and arches continues something will break. The people will rise up and civil war will break out. You can only push folk so far, especially in a place like America. The world looks on in horror at the nastiness and dumb brutality of the Trump regime via ICE and Trump’s retribution tour. The rule of law has ben corrupted and distorted with the DOJ now, in effect, Trump’s personal attack dog. Ugliness and aggression is everywhere you look when it comes to the United States.
America Helped Created The Russian Oligarchy
You may not know this but it was the US administration that helped create the Russian oligarchic system following the fall of the USSR. The George HW Bush government sent in economic advisors to assist with what was happening in Russia and they recommended the establishment of oligarchs as an accelerated way to transform the economy. Billionaires put in place as key hierarchical pieces within a newly established Russian economy. Inequality and unfairness was baked in right at the start. You can see from this that American democracy has always been window dressing over an oligarchy driving the bus at its core. Wealthy dynasties run the economic show in the USA. Institutions like the Bohemian Club are where old money interests gather to direct the path of the economy and the nation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_Club
Billionaires have never been less popular worldwide, as they are right now. People are waking up to the rigged game run by Big Tech, where you own nothing and pay for the privilege. Endless fees and subscription charges plague working families and individuals. Inflation is rising again under Trump with his foolish tariffs and Iran war for Zionist Israeli interests. Energy costs and housing costs are bleeding average folk dry. Rents and home loan repayments are way too high. The cost of living is severely exploitative under the oligarchy. It is predicated upon the super-rich sucking the modest wealth from the middle class and working families. Something must give or break!
Populist Politics & The Billionaires Backing It
“Populism of the Far Right variety is not some natural occurrence or trend happening at the moment. It is an artificially fed and funded campaign coming from the United States and billionaire money. Reform in the UK and its various eco system components like GB News have received around 200 million pounds over the last 5 years from US and overseas sources. Billionaires funding the Far Right. The social media echo chamber with hugely popular accounts on X and Facebook promoting these populist themes are not UK based accounts but can be traced back to America. Mining the politics of grievance is being done with a military like precision and strategy.”
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK
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