The “overgrown influence” of extreme wealth, wrote Thomas Paine in 1792, was “one of the principal sources of corruption at elections.” More than 200 years later, billionaires line up behind the president at his inauguration and the wealthiest Americans exert colossal influence over U.S. politics. Our deeply oligarchic times have vindicated the warning from Paine, whose pamphlet “Common Sense” helped spark the American Revolution. Now we should consider Paine’s solution to oligarchy: a wealth tax with a top marginal rate of 100%. (MSNBC)
Thomas Paine, who’d have thunk that his words and his message delivered some 200 years ago, make too much sense, and seem to be a remedy to keep America from falling into the pit of an Oligarchy. Who’d have thunk that his words, which helped spark an American revolution against a British oligarch, the King of England, would be as relevant NOW as they were when first written. But then again, after his first debacle as President, who’d have thunk that any American worth their weight in democracy, morals, and values would have provided a common criminal like Trump a second chance to fuck things up, even worse than the first time.
Thanks to the out-of-touch, oligarch-owned, and operated Supreme Court, Corporations became people, having the same privileges as the wealthy to purchase their favorite politicians. The politicians who have the mandate to limit dark money and outlandish gifts toward their own self-interests, of course, will not pass a bill limiting that kind of ownership, and with the same penchant for greed, grifting, and gluttony as Trump, the American Oligarchs, with great delight, willingly and lovingly indulge in keeping the poor, poor and a select few very wealthy!
