[Peace-discuss] We're living in a kleptocracy -- forget "socialism" and "fascism"

[Stuart Levy]

See this article by William Astore.  We've heard this story before,
but he says it especially well.

    "We're Living in a Kleptocracy: Fears of Socialism and Fascism
          Are a Distraction from the Naked Theft of Trillions"

    http://www.alternet.org/story/146553/we%27re_living_in_a_kleptocracy%3A_fears_of_socialism_and_fascism_are_a_distraction_from_the_naked_theft_of_trillions

"... when Americans today wish to critique or condemn their government, the
typical epithets used are “socialism” or “fascism.”  When my conservative
friends are upset, they send me emails with links to material about “ObamaCare”
and the like.  These generally warn of a future socialist takeover of the
private realm by an intrusive, power-hungry government.  When my progressive
friends are upset, they send me emails with links pointing to an incipient
fascist takeover of our public and private realms, led by that same intrusive,
power-hungry government (and, I admit it, I’m hardly innocent when it comes to
such “what if” scenarios).

What if, however, instead of looking at where our government might be headed,
we took a closer look at where we are -- at the power-brokers who run or
influence our government, at those who are profiting and prospering from it?
These are, after all, the “winners” in our American world in terms of the power
they wield and the wealth they acquire.  And shouldn’t we be looking as well at
those Americans who are losing -- their jobs, their money, their homes, their
healthcare, their access to a better way of life -- and asking why?"

...
"Never has the old adage my father used to repeat to me -- “the rich get richer
and the poor poorer” -- seemed fresher or truer.  If you want confirmation of
just where we are today, for instance, consider this passage from a recent
piece by Tony Judt:

    In 2005, 21.2 percent of U.S. national income accrued to just 1 percent of
    earners.  Contrast 1968, when the CEO of General Motors took home, in pay and
    benefits, about sixty-six times the amount paid to a typical GM worker.  Today
    the CEO of Wal-Mart earns nine hundred times the wages of his average employee.
    Indeed, the wealth of the Wal-Mart founder’s family in 2005 was estimated at
    about the same ($90 billion) as that of the bottom 40 percent of the U.S.
    population: 120 million people.

Wealth concentration is only one aspect of our increasingly kleptocratic
system.  War profiteering by corporations (however well disguised as heartfelt
support for our heroic warfighters) is another.  Meanwhile, retired senior
military officers typically line up to cash in on the kleptocratic equivalent
of welfare, peddling their “expertise” in return for impressive corporate and
Pentagon payouts that supplement their six-figure pensions.  Even that putative
champion of the Carhartt-wearing common folk, Sarah Palin, pocketed a cool $12
million last year without putting the slightest dent in her populist bona fides."

...

"Is it any surprise then that, in seeking to export our form of government to
Iraq and Afghanistan, we’ve produced not two model democracies, but two
emerging kleptocracies, fueled respectively by oil and opium?

When we confront corruption in Iraq or Afghanistan, are we not like the police
chief in the classic movie Casablanca who is shocked, shocked to find gambling
going on at Rick’s Café, even as he accepts his winnings?

Why then do we bother to feign shock when Iraqi and Afghan elites, a tiny
minority, seek to enrich themselves at the expense of the majority?

Shouldn’t we be flattered?  Imitation, after all, is the sincerest form of
flattery.  Isn’t it?"

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