Plutocrats

Who are they? They are the super-rich multimillion and multibillionaires, many of whom are directly and indirectly involved in influencing the political scene in this country. They are small in number compared to the rest of us, non-Plutocrats. Perhaps they get their name (Plutocrat) because the gap between their wealth and the wealth of a poor or middle class person’s parallels the gap that equals the distance between the planet Earth and the dwarf planet Pluto (averaging 3.7 billion miles). According to some things I’ve read they are against so called “entitlement programs” because they don’t want to fund them. Because the amount of wealth these Plutocrats have amassed is so great, achieving the same amount or even close to the same of wealth is considered unattainable for poor and middle class Americans. Some economists are thinking there really is no longer a fair level playing field in our country and this has a direct negative impact on the attainment of the so called “American Dream.”

But one thing to keep in mind is that the United States was founded as a plutocracy. In order to vote, you had to own land, thus proving that your wealth was above a certain threshold, that you belonged to the land-owning class. Voting eligibility along with many other things have changed since our country was founded, but are we still a plutocracy? The Roman Republic, Carthage, and the pre-World War II Empire of Japan were all plutocracies. In the U.S. today Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake, FL are contemporary plutocracies owned and governed by The Walt Disney Company as per state statutes.

At this point in my life, I don’t strive to be a Plutocrat, but there are many people struggling just to get by and I would like to hope that their lives and economic circumstances can improve and thus their burdens lighter. But does the existence and influence of Plutocrats stymie opportunities for economic stability and success for the rest of us?