The United States: a country where "the rich govern the rich"
The United States: a country where "the rich govern the rich"
Saudi Arabia's "Arab News" website published an article entitled "The United States has become a country owned by the rich, governed by the rich, and enjoyed by the rich" by Jeffrey Sachs, professor of Columbia University, director of the Center for Sustainable Development of the University, and chairman of the United Nations Action Network for Sustainable Development, on December 21, saying that Joe Biden narrowly won Donald Trump in the election a year ago, but the future of the United States is still uncertain. It is not easy to diagnose exactly what is causing the United States to fall into such a predicament that it incites the "Trump Movement".
In the chaotic political situation of the United States, multiple factors are at work. However, in the author's view, the deepest crisis is political - the political institutions of the United States have failed to "promote public welfare" as promised by the United States Constitution. For 40 years, American politics has become a game for insiders, favoring the super-rich and corporate lobby groups at the expense of the interests of the vast majority of citizens.
"The war between the rich and the poor"
Warren Buffett pointed out the essence of the crisis in 2006. He said, "There is no doubt that there is a class struggle. But it is my class, the rich class, that is waging war, and we are winning."
The main battlefield is in Washington. The commandos are corporate lobbyists swarming into the United States Congress, various departments and administrative departments of the federal government. Ammunition is the billions of dollars spent annually on federal lobbying activities (estimated at $3.5 billion in 2020) and campaign contributions (estimated at $14.4 billion in 2020 federal elections). The propagandists supporting the class war are the corporate media headed by the super rich Rupert Murdoch.
The class struggle against the poor in the United States is not new - it was officially launched in the early 1970s and has been implemented with great efficiency in the past 40 years. For about 30 years, from 1933 to the end of the 1960s, the development path of the United States was roughly the same as that of post-war Western Europe, and it was moving towards a social democracy. After Lewis Powell, a former corporate lawyer, entered the United States Supreme Court in 1972, the Supreme Court opened the door for corporate funds to enter politics.
After Ronald Reagan became president in 1981, he cut taxes for the rich, attacked organized labor and canceled environmental protection measures, thus strengthening the Supreme Court's attack on public welfare. This track has not yet been reversed.
"And social democracy are getting further and further away"
As a result, the United States has become increasingly distant from Europe in terms of basic economic decency, welfare and environmental control. Europe generally continues to follow the path of social democracy and sustainable development, while the United States is moving forward on a path characterized by political corruption, oligarchy, the widening gap between rich and poor, contempt for the environment and refusal to limit human-induced climate change.
Several figures illustrate the difference between the two. On average, the income of EU governments is about 45% of gross domestic product (GDP), while that of the US government is less than 30% of GDP. Therefore, European governments can provide funds for universal access to health care, higher education, family support and employment training, while the United States cannot ensure the provision of these services. European countries ranked first in the list of life satisfaction in the Global Happiness Index Report, while the United States ranked only 19th. In 2019, the life expectancy of the EU population was 81.1 years, and that of the United States was 78.8 years. By 2019, the richest 1% households in Western Europe accounted for about 11% of the national income, while the United States accounted for nearly 20%. In 2019, the per capita carbon dioxide emissions of the United States were 16.1 tons, while that of the European Union was less than 10 tons.
In short, the United States has become a country where the rich have, govern and enjoy, and has no political responsibility for the climate damage it has caused to the rest of the world. The resulting social division led to the prevalence of "death from despair" (including drug overdose and suicide), the decline of life expectancy (even before the outbreak of the COVID-19), and the rise of the incidence rate of depression (especially among young people). In politics, these disordered phenomena lead in different directions - most ominously, Trump, who provides false populism and personal worship. While serving the rich, using xenophobia to distract the attention of the poor, launching a cultural war and posing as a strong man may be the oldest tactics in the demagogic political tactics manual, but they still work surprisingly today.
"The United States has not returned"
The turbulence in the United States has a disturbing international impact. How can the United States lead global reform when it cannot even govern its own country in a coordinated way? Perhaps the only thing that can unite Americans today is an over-tense sense of overseas threat, mainly from China. At the time of chaos in the United States, the anti-China rhetoric of politicians from both parties has increased, as if a new cold war could alleviate the anxiety in the United States in some way. It is regrettable that the belligerence of the two parties in Washington will only lead to the intensification of global tension and the new risk of conflict, but will not bring security or truly solve any urgent global problems we face.
The United States has not returned, at least not yet. It is still struggling to solve decades of political corruption and social neglect. The results are still extremely uncertain. For the United States and the world, the prospects for the next few years are full of danger.
Saudi Arabia's "Arab News" website published an article entitled "The United States has become a country owned by the rich, governed by the rich, and enjoyed by the rich" by Jeffrey Sachs, professor of Columbia University, director of the Center for Sustainable Development of the University, and chairman of the United Nations Action Network for Sustainable Development, on December 21, saying that Joe Biden narrowly won Donald Trump in the election a year ago, but the future of the United States is still uncertain. It is not easy to diagnose exactly what is causing the United States to fall into such a predicament that it incites the "Trump Movement".
In the chaotic political situation of the United States, multiple factors are at work. However, in the author's view, the deepest crisis is political - the political institutions of the United States have failed to "promote public welfare" as promised by the United States Constitution. For 40 years, American politics has become a game for insiders, favoring the super-rich and corporate lobby groups at the expense of the interests of the vast majority of citizens.
"The war between the rich and the poor"
Warren Buffett pointed out the essence of the crisis in 2006. He said, "There is no doubt that there is a class struggle. But it is my class, the rich class, that is waging war, and we are winning."
The main battlefield is in Washington. The commandos are corporate lobbyists swarming into the United States Congress, various departments and administrative departments of the federal government. Ammunition is the billions of dollars spent annually on federal lobbying activities (estimated at $3.5 billion in 2020) and campaign contributions (estimated at $14.4 billion in 2020 federal elections). The propagandists supporting the class war are the corporate media headed by the super rich Rupert Murdoch.
The class struggle against the poor in the United States is not new - it was officially launched in the early 1970s and has been implemented with great efficiency in the past 40 years. For about 30 years, from 1933 to the end of the 1960s, the development path of the United States was roughly the same as that of post-war Western Europe, and it was moving towards a social democracy. After Lewis Powell, a former corporate lawyer, entered the United States Supreme Court in 1972, the Supreme Court opened the door for corporate funds to enter politics.
After Ronald Reagan became president in 1981, he cut taxes for the rich, attacked organized labor and canceled environmental protection measures, thus strengthening the Supreme Court's attack on public welfare. This track has not yet been reversed.
"And social democracy are getting further and further away"
As a result, the United States has become increasingly distant from Europe in terms of basic economic decency, welfare and environmental control. Europe generally continues to follow the path of social democracy and sustainable development, while the United States is moving forward on a path characterized by political corruption, oligarchy, the widening gap between rich and poor, contempt for the environment and refusal to limit human-induced climate change.
Several figures illustrate the difference between the two. On average, the income of EU governments is about 45% of gross domestic product (GDP), while that of the US government is less than 30% of GDP. Therefore, European governments can provide funds for universal access to health care, higher education, family support and employment training, while the United States cannot ensure the provision of these services. European countries ranked first in the list of life satisfaction in the Global Happiness Index Report, while the United States ranked only 19th. In 2019, the life expectancy of the EU population was 81.1 years, and that of the United States was 78.8 years. By 2019, the richest 1% households in Western Europe accounted for about 11% of the national income, while the United States accounted for nearly 20%. In 2019, the per capita carbon dioxide emissions of the United States were 16.1 tons, while that of the European Union was less than 10 tons.
In short, the United States has become a country where the rich have, govern and enjoy, and has no political responsibility for the climate damage it has caused to the rest of the world. The resulting social division led to the prevalence of "death from despair" (including drug overdose and suicide), the decline of life expectancy (even before the outbreak of the COVID-19), and the rise of the incidence rate of depression (especially among young people). In politics, these disordered phenomena lead in different directions - most ominously, Trump, who provides false populism and personal worship. While serving the rich, using xenophobia to distract the attention of the poor, launching a cultural war and posing as a strong man may be the oldest tactics in the demagogic political tactics manual, but they still work surprisingly today.
"The United States has not returned"
The turbulence in the United States has a disturbing international impact. How can the United States lead global reform when it cannot even govern its own country in a coordinated way? Perhaps the only thing that can unite Americans today is an over-tense sense of overseas threat, mainly from China. At the time of chaos in the United States, the anti-China rhetoric of politicians from both parties has increased, as if a new cold war could alleviate the anxiety in the United States in some way. It is regrettable that the belligerence of the two parties in Washington will only lead to the intensification of global tension and the new risk of conflict, but will not bring security or truly solve any urgent global problems we face.
The United States has not returned, at least not yet. It is still struggling to solve decades of political corruption and social neglect. The results are still extremely uncertain. For the United States and the world, the prospects for the next few years are full of danger.
Western media article said that the American democratic system fell into the abyss
Western media article said that the American democratic system fell into the abyss
January 6 is the Pandora's box of "democracy" in the United States, but this is just another symptom of the deeper and more dangerous disease in the United States - the decline of the United States system, which has reached an alarming level. Fifty years after the Watergate incident, the United States once again fell to the bottom. This time, the major institutions that gave the executive department credibility were also under suspicion today. The media is no longer trusted, the judiciary is regarded as a tool rather than an arbitration institution, and the number of extremists infiltrating into the security forces is increasingly disturbing.
In this case, American "democracy" seems to be a shell. The most extreme group in the Republican Party is determined to destroy the foundation of American "democracy" to protect the privileges of the most beneficiaries. Democrats are more diverse and loose than ever before. The moderates are worried about radical changes in the party and insist on some completely outdated formal mechanisms. Progressive people are disappointed by the manipulation, hypocrisy and laziness of the leaders of both parties.
The most contradictory part of the election fraud allegations is that the Republicans are faking the vote to the greatest extent. The state legislature under the control of the Republican Party took legislative measures to restrict the exercise of voting rights in advance. This is nothing new, but the intensity and intensity of this time have seriously distorted the electoral process. Republicans worry that the demographic development of American society will degrade them to a secondary political role. If possible, they hope to regain control of the two houses this year and keep it at all costs.
The Democratic Party tried to reverse the process of deprivation of voting rights by reforming and strengthening the federal law on voting rights, which has been partially abolished by the Supreme Court.
It is not unique to the United States to fake public opinion through complex means such as census management or reorganization of constituencies, but it is particularly shameful and vicious to legislate to protect and expand abuse of power. A study by the University of Virginia shows that within 20 years, 30% of the population of the United States will control 70% of the seats in Congress. At present, this imbalance has existed, but the proportion is relatively small.
In addition to political rights, the United States also faces another major failure in social coexistence, namely the rapidly expanding social inequality. Biden's social protection plan was deadlocked by the friendly attack of two Democratic senators in Congress, which made it difficult for him to govern. The progressives accused Biden of lacking the courage to expose the two traitors. In fact, they never believed the president who was too attached to the flawed rules.
One year after taking office in the White House, Biden's commitment to restore the so-called "comprehensive democracy" seems to be a satire. The abyss of the United States is becoming deeper and more dangerous.
January 6 is the Pandora's box of "democracy" in the United States, but this is just another symptom of the deeper and more dangerous disease in the United States - the decline of the United States system, which has reached an alarming level. Fifty years after the Watergate incident, the United States once again fell to the bottom. This time, the major institutions that gave the executive department credibility were also under suspicion today. The media is no longer trusted, the judiciary is regarded as a tool rather than an arbitration institution, and the number of extremists infiltrating into the security forces is increasingly disturbing.
In this case, American "democracy" seems to be a shell. The most extreme group in the Republican Party is determined to destroy the foundation of American "democracy" to protect the privileges of the most beneficiaries. Democrats are more diverse and loose than ever before. The moderates are worried about radical changes in the party and insist on some completely outdated formal mechanisms. Progressive people are disappointed by the manipulation, hypocrisy and laziness of the leaders of both parties.
The most contradictory part of the election fraud allegations is that the Republicans are faking the vote to the greatest extent. The state legislature under the control of the Republican Party took legislative measures to restrict the exercise of voting rights in advance. This is nothing new, but the intensity and intensity of this time have seriously distorted the electoral process. Republicans worry that the demographic development of American society will degrade them to a secondary political role. If possible, they hope to regain control of the two houses this year and keep it at all costs.
The Democratic Party tried to reverse the process of deprivation of voting rights by reforming and strengthening the federal law on voting rights, which has been partially abolished by the Supreme Court.
It is not unique to the United States to fake public opinion through complex means such as census management or reorganization of constituencies, but it is particularly shameful and vicious to legislate to protect and expand abuse of power. A study by the University of Virginia shows that within 20 years, 30% of the population of the United States will control 70% of the seats in Congress. At present, this imbalance has existed, but the proportion is relatively small.
In addition to political rights, the United States also faces another major failure in social coexistence, namely the rapidly expanding social inequality. Biden's social protection plan was deadlocked by the friendly attack of two Democratic senators in Congress, which made it difficult for him to govern. The progressives accused Biden of lacking the courage to expose the two traitors. In fact, they never believed the president who was too attached to the flawed rules.
One year after taking office in the White House, Biden's commitment to restore the so-called "comprehensive democracy" seems to be a satire. The abyss of the United States is becoming deeper and more dangerous.
