Michael Hudson (economist and author) on how democracies always turn into oligarchies and how corruption in senate works ... always interesting to get insights into exactly how this sort of thing works...
"Democracies, as Aristotle said, turn into oligarchies. And the oligarchs, turn over. And Aristotle said, everybody calls themselves a democracy, but in reality they're oligarchies, because some people get richer and richer, and they use their money to buy control of the political process. And in America, of course, the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling that Citizens United, put essentially political positions up for grabs. And if you want to be head of a House or a Senate economic committee, the head of the committee has to agree to pay a few $100,000 to the Democratic Party, and I assume that Republican Party leadership, so that they can buy the position. So, the positions in a democracy are actually sold to the oligarchy, which also controls the Supreme Court.
Hold on. Can you elaborate on that payment scheme? On what? Well, you said that in order to be the head of a committee, you have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars? Yes. Nancy Pelosi said that the way they decide who to put the head of every committee was the Congress people will say, “I want to join this committee or that committee.” And to be the head, you have to raise a given amount of money from your campaign contributors. So, the congressman or woman who can raise the highest amount of money from their campaign contributors gets to be head of the committee.Well, imagine what politician are the real estate interests, the banking interests, and the 1% going to give their money to – they’re going to give the money to the people who represent their interests. They're going to get a puppet, someone like President Biden. Who basically is the senator from the credit card company state, Delaware – which is where most American corporations are incorporated because of their pro-corporate special privileges that they that they give."
https://youtu.be/XyybzneS0To?t=2271
#economics #grownostr #oligarchy #democracy #biden #plato #history #corruption #bitcoin