There is a self perpetuating wealthy elite class system here in America T/F?

[bobthedrummer]

Much of the assets available to these rebels that hate US and OUR CONSTITUTION went into hiding themselves among US until they had their coup.

They are both criminals and domestic enemies of The United States of America.

Now we are organizing the taking back of our government. Call it the counterrevolution.

What does DU think about the classes of America in general? Feel free to comment with your vote.

[FarCenter]

1. The "self perpetuating wealthy elite class" actually wrote the constitution

"No taxation without representation" was one of the revolutionary slogans. However, at the time, only the wealthy paid much in the way of taxes.

The wealthy founders of the country, who were smugglers, distillers, slave traders, plantation owners, and media moguls ("printer" Ben Franklin), didn't want to pay taxes to London.

[bobthedrummer]

2. Democracy doesn't require property ownership-besides, FarCenter, this is 2011, post-coup era.

[FarCenter]

3. There was no coup -- the wealthy elite have always run the United States from the very beginning

[bobthedrummer]

4. The BUSH/CHENEY admin was INSTALLED-I call that a coup, and so do many others n/t

[FarCenter]

5. That may be a coup, but it was not a coup by the wealthy elit, who were always running things

You don't think of Bob Rubin in the Clinton administration as an impoverished champion of the underdog do you?

And the Kennedys fit the definition of self perpetuating wealthy elite as well as any family.

[hifiguy]

13. Not so much.

Joe Kennedy Sr. was the one who made all the money. His forbears, and his wife Rose's, were not wealthy, though they were comfortably middle class. Joe had his hand in a lot of things, real estate, movies, stocks, and an enterprise that while of dubious legality, slaked the thirst of many Prohibition-era folks. Sharp practice could have been his middle name, and as FDR so famously said when he appointed Joe Kennedy as the first chariman of the SEC "It takes a crook to catch a crook."

[DrunkenBoat]

14. Kennedy's father was wealthy, & political. Rose's family was also wealthy & political -- mayor of

Boston, among other offices.

More than "middle-class" as we understand it today.

[dmosh42]

6. I think it's self perpetuating in the sense that once an individual..

attains the 'wealth' status, they will work to keep that position in place by working to have the rest of society carry any burdens of society having to do with wars or social justice. I'm sure if anyone has done a survey of who most lobbyist represent, it won't be Joe Q, average citizen, but will be the richest corporations and executives, not only in this country, but from around the world. But the ultimate victory for the elites had to be when Bush had the military invade Iraq for his fake war, and for the favor of the oil industry. No bodies recovered from that war were from our 'elite' class.

[Octafish]

7. This is why we need to repeal the Death Tax.

Otherwise, it'd be a lot harder to pass the loot on to the next urination.

[CrispyQ]

8. This is key.

There was a short lived TV show called Dirty Sexy Money about a wealthy family. Donald Sutherland played the patriarch. His attorney referred to him as a wealth maker & he said, something to the effect of, 'I'm not a wealth maker. My great grandfather was the wealth maker. I'm just a wealth keeper.'

I think it was Chris Rock who said, "Shaq is rich. The man who signs Shaq's paycheck is wealthy." The richest person I know personally, was worth about $200 million before the '08 fallout. I only got a tiny glimpse into that world & let me tell you, it's a whole other universe.

on edit: To end a somewhat rambling post, you can't have democracy & dynasties.

[Romulox]

9. US= worst class mobility in the developed world. Most wealth is inherited. nt

[blindpig]

10. A quote from John Reed's 10 Days that Shook the World

We sallied out into the town. Just at the door of the station stood two soldiers with rifles and bayonets fixed. They were surrounded by about a hundred business men, government officials and students, who attacked them with passionate argument and epithet. The soldiers were uncomfortable and hurt, like children unjustly scolded. A tall young man with a supercilious expression, dressed in the uniform of a student, was leading the attack. "You realise, I presume," he said insolently, "that by taking up arms against your brothers you are making yourselves the tools of murderers and traitors?"

"Now brother,"answered the soldier earnestly, "you don't understand. There are two classes, don't you see, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. We..."

"Oh, I know that silly talk!" broke in the student rudely. "a bunch of ignorant peasants like you hear somebody bawling a few catch-words. You don't understand what they mean. You just echo them like a lot of parrots." The crowd laughed. "I'm a Marxian student. and I tell you that this isn't Socialism you are fighting for. It's just plain pro-German anarchy!"

"Oh, yes, I know," answered the soldier, with sweat dripping from his brow. "You are an educated man, that is easy to see, and I am only a simple man. But it seems to me..."

"I suppose," interrupted the other contemptuously, "that you believe Lenin is a real friend of the proletariat?"

"Yes, I do," answered the soldier, suffering.

"Well, my friend, do you know that Lenin was sent through Germany in a closed car? Do you know that Lenin took money from the Germans?"

"Well, I don't know much about that," answered the soldier stubbornly, "but it seems to me that what he says is what I want to hear, and all the simple men like me. Now there are two classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat..."

"You are a fool! Why, my friend, I spent two years in Schlusselburg for revolutionary activity, when you were still shooting down revolutionists and singing 'God Save the Tsar!' My name is Vasili Georgevitch Panyin. Didn't you ever hear of me?"

"I'm sorry to say I never did," answered the soldier with humility. "But then, I am not an educated man. You are probably a great hero."

"I am," said the student with conviction. "and I am opposed to the Bolsheviki, who are destroying our Russia, our free Revolution. Now how do you account for that?"

The soldier scratched his head. "I can't account for it at all," he said, grimacing with the pain of his intellectual processes. "To me it seems perfectly simple - but then, I'm not well educated. It seems like there are only two classes, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie ..."

"There you go again with your silly formula!" cried the student.

"and whoever isn't on one side is on the other..."

That's what I think about class. Bolding added.

[RadiationTherapy]

11. False.

It is not merely "self-perpetuating". That kind of passive language belies our participation in it all.

[moondust]

12. Isn't that called "inheritance"?

Not just money but family connections and "status."

See: GWB.