Democracy: best political system the rich ever had

For centuries, aristocrats criticized democracy because their feared the people. The people would redistribute wealth and privilege. The people would act under the banner of equality. The people would eliminate the rich and make everything and everyone the same. Even a hundred years ago conservatives feared that democracy would raise taxes to the extent that the people would eat the social surplus (capital) necessary for future growth and investment. All the people could do was think with their stomachs and, motivated by greed, they would take back the wealth of the few.

Wow. How wrong they were. Democracy is the best system the rich ever had. In a setting where everyone has the right to shout, no one speaks for the poor. In a system where everyone has the right to vote, no one represents the poor.

We are trapped in a nightmare where the rich fight with each other over how best to screw the rest of us, long and hard or fast and violent. My son put it best when he said all the Democrats are now are the Republicans' sex toys.

Comments

[Alain]

What you say here reminds me of something from Aristotle's Politics: I don't recall the exact passage but he says something to the effect that there are basically 2 types of constitutions, of which all others are mere variations: democracy and Oligarcy. The Rich and poor will always and eternally remain irreducible to each other and conflict between tem is unavoidable. He seems to suggest that one solution to this conflict is to create something like a "middle class" (my term not his) The middle class is like a mean between the two extremes, identifying their socio-economic position with the political center (I was always reminded of Schlesinger's term of the "vital center"). But he also recognized how fragile this political and economic mean actually is - it is always under threat to be wiped away by either extreme.

Until the last 30 years, it seemed that the United States had tried an experiment in the spirit of Aristotle's description. But now the middle class is largely a fiction, or is about to become one.

I really look forward to the new book - no matter how long each chapter is.:)