Korten: The United States as a Plutocracy

I ran across this video today by author David Korten. It is a few years old, but I think it does a very good job of explaining plutocracy in US government. Korten argues that the US was founded as a plutocracy. The Constitution was written to establish white men of the propertied class as the leaders of government. This was the norm until World War II. Following the war, the US entered a period of egalitarianism, until some time in the 1970’s when corporate powers became concerned that we were becoming too egalitarian. Over the past forty years, we have seen a return to the plutocratic norm of our history. (What Korten sees as a return to historic norms is what I see as plutocracy ascendant.) He concludes with actions to take to counter plutocracy with deep democracy.

It’s the Inequality, Stupid

Eleven charts that explain what’s wrong with America. A good primer on income inequality from Mother Jones.