Monstrous Inequality

Here are a few more interesting tidbits on the financial elite from the article by James Petras:

The growth of vast inequalities between the yearly payments of the
financial ruling class and the medium salary of workers has reached
unprecedented levels. The financial elite receives something in the range of a
ratio of 500 up to 1000 times that of an average worker, depending on how
narrowly or broadly we conceive of the financial ruling class....

Inequality in the distribution of national income in the US is the worst in
the entire developed capitalist world. Moreover studies of time series data
reveal that in the US inequality increased far greater and intergenerational
social mobility was far more difficult in the US than any country in Western
Europe . The growth of monstrous and rigid class inequalities reflects the
narrow social base of an economy dominated by finance capital, its ingrown
intergenerational linkages and the exorbitant entry fees ($50,000 per annum
tuition with room and board) to elite private universities and post-graduate
business schools. Equally important, the political power of finance capital and
its ‘associated’ conglomerates wield uncontested political power in the US in
comparison to any country in Europe . As a result the US government
redistributes far less through the tax and social security, health and
educational system than other countries.

Neither the Democratic Party majority in Congress, nor the
Republican-controlled Executive offer any proposals to challenge the financial
ruling class’s dominance nor are there any proposals to reverse its most
retrograde policies causing the growing inequalities, wage stagnation and the
increasing rigidity of the class structure. The reason has been reported in the
Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times : An overwhelming chunk of the funds
that Democrats raise nationally for election campaigns comes either from Wall
Street financiers or Silicon Valley software entrepreneurs. ( FT November 3,
2006 p. 13). The Democratic congressional electoral campaign was tightly
controlled by two of Wall Street’s favorite Democrats, Senator Charles ‘Israel
First’ Schumer and Congressman Rahm Immanuel, who selectively funded candidates who were pro-war, pro-Wall Street and unconditionally pro-Israel.