Seven years ago, a study conducted by professors from Princeton and Northwestern University showed that the US is an oligarchy. The authors looked at 1,779 policies enacted between 1981 and 2002, and found that the bottom 90% of the country had no impact on policy. The preferences of anyone outside the top 10% in the …
Tag Archives: Corruption
Free Steven Donziger: This is What Totalitarianism Looks Like
There is always a price to pay for truly standing up to power. When your actions threaten the profits or power of a nation’s largest corporations, these dominant entities will come after you to either silence you, halt your actions, or make an example of you so that others do not attempt to upset the …
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Taxes are for the Poor Part 2,175: The Pandora Papers
Between the travesty that was the Steven Donziger court ruling and discussion of increased Facebook censorship among Congress, it was difficult to decide what to write about this week. The Donziger case might be next week’s subject, but this week I have decided to write about the massive leak of documents called the Pandora Papers. …
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Signs of A Broken, Corrupt, and Failing System: Jeff Bezos’ $500 Million Yacht
In the US, 1 in 8 Americans live below the poverty line. 500,000 medical bankruptcies occur each year, and 43,000 people die from lack of basic medical care. Americans are alone among residents of the developed world in that they are not guaranteed paid time off or even family leave. Those who dare advocate for …
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Another Year, Another President, But No Rest For the American People
I consider myself an optimist. I do believe that as a social species, humans are naturally inclined to be good and altruistic. Yet I am also a realist, and do not let my optimism blind me to serious societal blights that would be nice to ignore. As of last week, the man that for four …
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Four Rich Jerks with Too Much Money Fight Over a Railroad (And a Questionably Scottish Con Man Appears Too)
In the decades following the Civil War, the US was pulled into the Gilded Age, an era characterized by rank corruption and a stranglehold of Wall Street on the entire country (completely different from today). The wealthy collected immense fortune as millions suffered from abject poverty in the nations’ cities. Inequality was so rampant and …
What Happened to Federally Funded Election Campaigns: Notes on Campaign Finance
For those of you living in the US right now, you have no doubt been bombarded with all sorts of political fundraisers in the last few months. It’s hard to hide from the constant requests for money, whether they be delivered via fliers, emails, or other forms of media. Running for president is an expensive …
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Bipartisanship Is Not Dead: Endless War Edition
Time and time again you hear the refrain: we need more bipartisanship in DC. If there was only a little more cooperation between the parties, so the theory goes, then the entire country would be in a better place. Yet the individuals who make this argument appear to be unaware of the many ways that …
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An Infinitely Complex System: The Problem with Reductionism in Nutrition
You’ve probably heard the phrase “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Perhaps you think that this little saying is just a way of making something appear better than it really is. Yet in the case of nutrition, the whole of a particular food really is far greater than the sum of …
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No Opposition Party in Washington: Bailouts for Lobbyists and Unlimited Access to Your Data
As quarantine puts many Americans in danger of bankruptcy and unemployment levels might soon rival those at the height of the Great Depression, Congress has decided who it really wants to take care of in these times, and it is not the average worker. Bailouts for large corporations are taken as given, but one paycheck …
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