Paul Krugman: Great Riches Can Lead to Plutocracy and Destroy Democracies – International

The rich are different from you and me: they have much more power. But when they try to exercise this power, they can fall into a trap – supporting politicians who, if they could, would create a society in which the rich themselves would not want to live.

This is the theme that runs through four great stories that have taken place in recent months in the United States: the relationship between Judge Clarence Thomas and billionaire Harlan Crowe; The apparent rise and fall of L’s presidential campaign Ron DeSantis; Fox News Trials (literally); and kidnapping Elon Musk on Twitter.

First, some notes on the role of excess wealth in democracy.

Whigs often insist that expressing any concern about highly concentrated wealth is “un-American.” However, the truth is that worrying about the dangers great fortunes pose to democracy is part of the American tradition. And our nation essentially invented progressive taxation, which has traditionally been viewed not only as a source of income but also as a way to curb excess wealth.

Indeed, if you read what prominent people said during the Progressive Era, many expressed views that would be hysterically condemned as class struggle today. Theodore Roosevelt warned against “a small class of extremely wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief aim is to maintain and increase their power.” Woodrow Wilson declared, “If there are any men in this country great enough to own the government of the United States, they will own it.”

How do you translate great wealth into great power? Campaign financing is dominated by a small number of very wealthy donors. But there are several other channels of influence.

Until recently, I would have said that outright corruption—the outright buying of benefits from policymakers—was rare. revelation ProPublica That Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had enjoyed several unpublicized luxury vacations at Crowe’s expense suggests I may not have been cynical enough.

Then there is the revolving door: Politicians and former officials who have supported the interests of the wealthy find comfortable refuge in billionaire-backed lobbying firms, think tanks and media organizations. These organizations also help shape what military analysts call the “information space,” shaping public discourse in ways that favor the interests of the wealthy.

Despite all this, there is only so much you can achieve in the United States, even with our flawed and rigged democracy, unless you can win over large numbers of voters who don’t support a multibillion-dollar pro-economic agenda.

It’s an oversimplification, but I think it’s fundamentally true to say that the American right has won many elections, despite an inherently unpopular economic agenda, by appealing to intolerance — racism, homophobia, and, currently, anti-“disenchantment.” However, there is a danger to this strategy: the wealthy who imagine that the forces of bigotry are at work for them may wake up to find that the opposite is true.

Which brings us to the other stories you mentioned.

DeSantis effect

For a while, DeSantis appeared to be rising in the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. Much of his apparent rise reflected support from major Republican donors, who saw him as a healthier alternative to Donald Trump — someone who would serve their financial interests while attracting working-class support through His social conservatism and willingness to play with conspiracy theories.

But some of those donors are now withdrawing, because it seems more and more like DeSantis’ bigotry and conspiracy theory wasn’t a political show — it’s what it really is. And money was looking for a charlatan, not a real fanatic.

One of the driving forces behind DeSantis’ candidacy is Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Network. Fox was founded primarily to implement a right-wing strategy of advancing plutocratic politics while winning over working-class whites with bigotry and conspiracy theories.

But the emails and texts unearthed in the defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems show that Fox became captive to the audience he created. They revealed that the network found itself endorsing allegations about the election being stolen, even though its staff knew it was false, because they feared losing ratings among viewers who wanted to believe the big lie.

And does anyone suspect that if the Republican primaries go as well as they seem, Fox will soon be back on Trump’s side? Thus, Rupert Murdoch’s organization was effectively held hostage by the very forces he helped conjure.

Elon Musk

But Elon Musk’s story is sadder. As Kara Swisher recently noted for the magazine a team, became “the world’s richest online troll”. The madness he helped raise didn’t take over his organization – it took over his mind.

I still believe that the concentration of wealth at the top undermines democracy. But it is not a simple story about the rule of the rich. Instead, it is a story where the attempts of the rich to get what they want unleash forces that could destroy America as we know it. And that’s scary.

* Paul Krugman has been a columnist for The New York Times since 2000. He is a professor at the City University of New York. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2008 for his work in international trade and economic geography.