The Interests of the Wealthy

When the wealthy seize control of government, the wealthy cannot help but destroy the society which supports them.

In the short term, it is in the separate interests of the wealthy to corrupt the system to their benefit. That is, they will seek their own benefits ahead of the people's, first by becoming the instruments of government policy, then by bending government policy to their interests. They will cooperate with each other to do this, and secure advantage over the people. Securing advantage, they will plunder the wealth of the people. This is what (most of) the national debt is. It is what the people 'owe' the rich. Instead of paying taxes, wealthy 'loan' the money to the government, which it then has to pay back. The wealthy have used their power to cause this.

In securing their separate interests, they will cooperate in gaining favors. They will trade for votes. This is not 'zero sum' as regular trade is, but each party gains, and both their influence on, and burden on, government and the people, will expand. That is, through the instrument of government, they each acquire disproportionate wealth. And since all resources are competed for, others, the people, are at a disadvantage. The system becomes rigged.

But then they will compete, they must compete, to secure advantage over each other, and further advantage over the people. The government becomes an instrument of their competition, as they compete for its favors. Those who do not compete will be at a competitive disadvantage.

So all the wealthy are forced to compete against each other. They will compete to cause the government to pursue purposes to their own separate ends,which is the very definition of corruption. These interests, the benefit of the wealthy, harm the system, and the people, necessarily, by the law of externality: Those costs which can be externalized, will be. Thus the costs of the benefits to the wealthy will be laid upon the people, until the wealth f the people is exhausted. We are seeing this happening in the present 'recession.'

But the welfare of the people is essential to the welfare of the wealthy, and where it is destroyed, so is their own welfare. If the destroy the income flow of the people, they destroy their own income flow as well.

A poor society has few rich people. Neither has it much power to project, or even protect its interests.

In the long term, an uncorrupted government serves the interests of the wealthy better. A government can only remain uncorrupted to such degree as the influence of the wealthy is limited.

The people have been losing the competition for their government. They have persistently elected the servants of the rich to office. Now the system is rigged in the favor of the wealthy. Not good.

Cross posted as comment to angrybearblog.com: Maule and Pappas on progressive taxation and the decreasing burden on the rich