<story><title>The 1% hide their money offshore, then use it to corrupt our democracy</title><url>http://www.theguardian.com/news/commentisfree/2016/apr/10/money-offshore-corrupt-democracy-political-influence</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>windexh8er</author><text>While I&amp;#x27;ve been meaning to read Noam Chomsky&amp;#x27;s: &amp;quot;Understanding Power&amp;quot; I ran across the documentary: &amp;quot;Requiem for the American Dream&amp;quot; over the weekend and this is clearly showcased within the first 5 minutes as he begins to describe &amp;quot;The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth &amp;amp; Power&amp;quot; and starts out with this infographic: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;imgur.com&amp;#x2F;QVcagot&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;imgur.com&amp;#x2F;QVcagot&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;Quoting Chomsky from this portion of the film: &amp;quot;Concentration of wealth yields concentration of power. Particularly so as the cost of elections skyrockets which forces the parties into the pockets of major corporations. And this political power directly translates into legislation that increases the concentration of wealth. So fiscal policy like tax policy, deregulation, rules of corporate governance, and a whole variety of measures - political measures designed to increase the concentration of wealth and power, which in turn yields more political power to do the same thing.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The documentary has spurred me to start reading the book, but falls in line with what&amp;#x27;s coming to light in the mainstream media today unfortunately.&lt;p&gt;Edit: Honest question - why the downvote?  Directly falls in line with the original post.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tim333</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s changed so much since Carter&amp;#x27;s day:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;Carter compared elections now-a-days to those when he was running for office, saying, “In those days when I ran against Gerald Ford, who was incumbent president or later Ronald Reagan, who challenged me, we didn’t raise a single penny to finance our campaign to run against each other. We just used the $1 per person checkoff that every taxpayer indicates at the end of his or her income tax return.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Guess things could be changed back?</text></comment>
<story><title>The 1% hide their money offshore, then use it to corrupt our democracy</title><url>http://www.theguardian.com/news/commentisfree/2016/apr/10/money-offshore-corrupt-democracy-political-influence</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>windexh8er</author><text>While I&amp;#x27;ve been meaning to read Noam Chomsky&amp;#x27;s: &amp;quot;Understanding Power&amp;quot; I ran across the documentary: &amp;quot;Requiem for the American Dream&amp;quot; over the weekend and this is clearly showcased within the first 5 minutes as he begins to describe &amp;quot;The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth &amp;amp; Power&amp;quot; and starts out with this infographic: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;imgur.com&amp;#x2F;QVcagot&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;imgur.com&amp;#x2F;QVcagot&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;Quoting Chomsky from this portion of the film: &amp;quot;Concentration of wealth yields concentration of power. Particularly so as the cost of elections skyrockets which forces the parties into the pockets of major corporations. And this political power directly translates into legislation that increases the concentration of wealth. So fiscal policy like tax policy, deregulation, rules of corporate governance, and a whole variety of measures - political measures designed to increase the concentration of wealth and power, which in turn yields more political power to do the same thing.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The documentary has spurred me to start reading the book, but falls in line with what&amp;#x27;s coming to light in the mainstream media today unfortunately.&lt;p&gt;Edit: Honest question - why the downvote?  Directly falls in line with the original post.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>objectivistbrit</author><text>If wealth and power are being concentrated anywhere, it&amp;#x27;s in the hands of the state:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.usgovernmentspending.com&amp;#x2F;include&amp;#x2F;usgs_chartSp03t.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.usgovernmentspending.com&amp;#x2F;include&amp;#x2F;usgs_chartSp03t....&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>