On Thursday I published The Return of a Giant about Bill Moyers’ return to television with a new show, Moyers and Company. On Saturday, he aired the first installation of that show: Winner Take All Politics. It’s a long clip, taking almost an hour to watch, but if you missed this on Saturday, it’s well worth the time.
In its premiere episode, Moyers & Company dives into one of the most important and controversial issues of our time: How Washington and Big Business colluded to make the super-rich richer and turn their backs on the rest of us…
Inserted from <BillMoyers.com>
Moyers & Company 101: On Winner Take All Politics from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.
One line in the video stood out to me so much that I have every intent of stealing it. 😉
If speech is money, than no money is no speech.
11 Responses to “A First Giant Step”
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When it all comes down to it, if you provide a service for the super rich than you are part of the problem and should be shunned, just as any other minion of a crime lord.
Welcome Robert. 🙂
I agree up to a point. If a super-rich person buys a hot dog from a street vendor, the vendor is part of the problem. However people who provide services exclusively to the super rich to enable them to increase their wealth certainly are.
So sad, but true that no money = no speech.
Indeed!
An excellent article, such that I watched it twice making notes, and it was more than worth the time. Here are some points from it.
I never saw the movie Wall Street but I think I’m going to have to. In it, Michael Douglas’ character says “I create nothing. I own. We make the rules.” and “You’re not naive to believe we live in a democracy are you?”
Inequality is made to happen by government; it is promoting inequality and failing to step in and fix the growing differences. It is the ‘have it alls’ versus the rest of the US population!
Between 1979 and 2005, the income of the top 1% grew by 256%. Split that 1% down further and the top one hundredth of 1% of households’ income went off the chart — pulled in income equal to $1 out of every $8, that’s 12.5% of the income of all Americans is earned by 1 one thousandth of US households (an infinitesimal number of households making 12.5% of all income in the US — scandalous!)
Why do the top earners get policies to make their earnings more, and the rest don’t? — money talks!
$46,000,000 per tax payer in the top 400 — that is the amount that the Bush tax cuts saved each of the top 400 tax payers which is $18.4 billion
protecting the top — The public officials are rewritting the rules of the economy that favour the few at the expense of the many.
‘All men are created equal’ — Thomas Jefferson, and therefore should have equal opportunity to influence government but it is only the tiny minority, the uber rich that are able to influence which comes back to ‘money talks!’.
Financial crisis caused by poor decisions by Washington and Wall Street; and the failure of domestic policy.
A poll: Washington helps
The 1% have dominant power over both political powers.
Ms Greubel — Money talks around Washington which means that politicians don’t hear the people.
Hacker and Pierson said politics got us into this mess and politics can get us out. I add if there is the political courage and will to do so.
I question if we say that a good education is a key to success and the researchers (Hacker and Pierson) confirm that education is important but not the only factor, then why are so many states, ie Texas, gutting education so that a quality education is not equally available to everyone — a tool for success?
A government that is now of the rich, by the rich, for the rich.
I found this facinating such that I would like to read the book. Also, I think these two men have a phenomenal amount of information and would make excellent advisors to any president. Whether they’d do it is another story. This certainly is not partisanship.
Absolutely excellent TC!!!
Did you know that both Hacker and Pierson hail from Eugene, Oregon? I know, you’re from New Joisy, but you got smart when you came west!
I read a story in The Chicago Tribune yesterday about the schools in Finland. They said that until they established equity (meaning that all of the children were treated equally) in the students (K-College – all free) so that every child had a chance to succeed, their grades were equivalent to the US’s. But once they established equity for all children, all the children’s grades improved substantially. This was measured by using an international test that all students had to take. Now if we could only do the same here in the US…
Lisa, there were stories on Care2 about the system in Finland about July or August 2011 too. The whole model is so different. Teachers had masters degrees, there was more emphasis on learning as opposed to testing and parents seemed more involved. If I recall correctly, students might have the same teacher for 3-4 years so the whole dynamic was different. I remember thinking at the time it would be a good system for Canada. Some American teachers were on a ‘field trip’ to evaluate it and were very impressed. It definitely has a lot to offer for both our countries. Oh, and the drop out rate was way down — I think one of the American teachers said that the American rate is about 25%, but Finland was about 2%, if that. And a lot of their students go on to university.
I would love to see the US adopt something similar.
Good digging, Lynn. I did know.
When Moyer asked if these last 40 years might be orchestrated by a group of people, he says, we don’t know yet. I think we do know the answer to the question, and i think we have a good idea who the perpetrators are.
Welcome Robert. 🙂
I’d sat it was orchestrated by the 0.1% and the Republican party.