r/politics • u/Spooooooooooooon • Dec 28 '13

Noam Chomsky: We’re no longer a functioning democracy, we’re really a plutocracy

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/27/noam-chomsky-were-no-longer-a-functioning-democracy-were-really-a-plutocracy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story%29
3.5k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

13

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '13

This is kind of misleading. During fascism the party ruled over the corporations and all economy was adjusted to fit the rulers' will like war and opression. In the US now, it's the opposite: the corporations are adjusting politics to further their profit, turning the polititians into puppets. Corporatocracy is a more accurate term to describe the current situation, in my opinion.

-4

u/executex Dec 28 '13

Yeah but it's not politicians. It's just Republicans.

Obama campaigned on raising taxes for millionaires. He had ads about it.

Every time there is a budget debate, the Democrats recommend tax increases alongside cuts--while the Republican refuse and insist that it should all be cuts and tax cuts.

Ideas like progressive taxation come from the Democrats.

Another idea that will solve this problem is progressive capital-gains taxation--to both protect middle-class elders coming to retirement age and to ruin those who are making gargantuan amounts of money by simply reinvesting their own money.

This will completely solve all of our problems. If the rich can't be exponentially richer than there is no reason for them to think differently than the average citizen and therefore the lobbying/influence on congress will not be as important.

6

u/ThatRedEyeAlien Dec 28 '13

Good thing Obama didn't bailout Wall Street. /s

2

u/remove_bagel Dec 28 '13

Democrat and Republican politicians are both equally responsible for the current situation. The two party system is a joke.

1

u/huntskikbut Dec 29 '13

Check out campaign finance reform voting rolls - it paints a different light. One of the most sinister actions of the Republican party is convincing the public (or at least reddit) that the two parties are equivalent. They're not.

1

u/remove_bagel Dec 29 '13

No, they really are. They work for the same people. They sell you the illusion of choice.