“Ain’t the new sound just like the old sound…” -Rage Against the Machine; “Ashes in the Fall”

Social media is finishing the rounds of findings from a joint Princeton and Northwestern study that states what everyone should probably know by now; America is an Oligarchy. We are not the shining beacon of a Republic we are taught to believe during our high school Civics or American Government classes.

Unfortunately, what Conservative members of the Republican Party who refer to themselves as the Tea Party, and their more radical counterparts, the Libertarian Party members provide as an answer to all of the woes caused by an Oligarchy, is more relaxed controls on the economy and privatization of public services. They use arguments that try to convince everyday Americans that if restrictions on businesses are relaxed, it will make it much easier for small businesses to propagate. While this may be true to an extent, calls for legislation like this are geared for maximum benefit to large transnational corporations, their upper management, and share holders.

Since the late 1970’s, the market has seen more and more deregulation. Often, this results in economic situations where the state becomes subservient to business or industry (see Fascism, also the documentary Fascism Inc.) As a result of this deregulation, wealth disparity in the United States has only increased, and the middle class continues to disappear.

Libertarians should take note of the last statement. Logically, if these policies are allowed to expand, the outcome can only get worse. Also, make no mistake, the greatest contributors to foundations that promote ideologies of the Libertarian and Tea Parties, such as the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute, are also some of the wealthiest and most privileged Americans (see the Koch brothers). They tell their less privileged party members that they seek to gain benefit for the entire party; but, don’t forget, they need the average voter as muscle to get their agendas passed through congress via the legal system as it exists in its current form. This interference from the wealthy elite, often on behalf of corporate interest, is a large part of why the United States is shifting to a state of Oligarchy.

The involvement of corporations, primarily through lobbyists, in the governmental process, heavily influences legislation introduced and passed on Capitol Hill. This results in laws heavily favoring corporate interests and the institution of Neoliberal policies. It is important to note that many of the concepts that led to and originated from Neoliberalism are ideological standards of the Libertarian Party. Chief among those is Homo Economicus.

To clarify, Homo Economicus did not originate out of Neoliberalism, rather when Neoliberalism was in its infancy, Milton Friedman likely applied theory from the former into the latter. However, if one familiarizes oneself with the ideologies contained in both concepts, it is easy to see how Homo Economicus and Neoliberalism are used to not only support each other, but how they are used as propaganda tools by Libertarians, and Conservatives alike. Take two common ideological stances from the Republican and Libertarian viewpoints: poverty and taxation.

Each party has a similar stance on poverty, but the two parties have differing views on taxation. Both parties are likely to say that someone lives in poverty not for their circumstances, but rather their decisions in life that led them to be mired in poverty. Once an individual is on state welfare programs, these parties feel that the poor will not work to come off of assistance. The solution to the problem is not to ask what factors prevent the individual form escaping assistance, but to reduce or eliminate state funded public assistance. In regard to taxation, Libertarians, ideally, seek to eliminate income tax and collect revenue according to the means originally outlined in the Constitution prior to the implementation of a graduated income tax. A graduated income tax can be seen as a violation of someone’s civil liberties; the government shouldn’t dictate where any portion of a worker’s pay should be spent. It is up to the individual to determine where their money is spent or contributed. Republicans view income tax as a form of wealth redistribution from the rationale that the economy is adversely influenced by heavy taxation of the wealthy in proportion to other classes. They feel that increased tax on the wealthy is punishment to those individuals for working hard or wisely investing their wealth. Republicans point to economic performance after tax cuts in which the wealthy pay more in tax from increased economic activity rather than a higher percentage of tax.

“And now ya do what they told ya..” -Rage Against The Machine; “Killing In the Name”

If we apply modern Homo Economicus thought to these viewpoints, we see that it is up to the individual to invest in themselves in order to prevent poverty, as if they were a living portfolio, much like a monetary investment portfolio. If catastrophe occurs during one’s lifetime that adversely affects their socioeconomic class, it was the fault of the person’s life choices or lack of planning that put them in that position. It is up to said individual to exert effort (hard work, perserverence, ambition, etc…) in order to rise up the socioeconomic ladder. If they do not exert enough effort or make the right choices, they rightly so should not rise above poverty ( they were just lazy, didn’t apply themselves enough, weren’t focused, etc…) The latter conceit is easily applied to situations of chance. For example if a person became homeless because of the housing crash of 2008; a situation caused by poor voluntary and forced lending practices, unchecked market speculation, and outright white collar crime, they were held at fault for taking a risky loan out or investing in a real estate market using their own home as collateral on the investment. It couldn’t be business itself that could be at fault, but the choice of the investor to gamble so riskily. Mind you, there was much encouragement for people to invest in housing during the early 2000’s because of the bloated returns that were being seen on investments. If not for state funded welfare, many individuals effected by the housing crash would be destitute. However, Republicans and Libertarians alike would say that it should not be up to the state (read other taxpayers) to “bail out” these individuals for their bad decisions and further damage the economy through that welfare tax burden.

Homo Economicus thought also can be applied to corporations via Corporate Personhood. Businesses survive and fail as a result of their business and investment decisions. This is decidedly so, however, because corporations can be seen as individuals in a legal sense, we see a rise in the instances of Corporate Welfare. To continue our example using the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis, multiple banks and other businesses were suddenly made financially insolvent. From reasoning outlined by Capitalism, those businesses should fail and those that remained in that field, such as banks, would eventually fill the void left by the insolvent businesses. However, these businesses appealed to the state to prop them up to remain in operation, but control of those businesses remained in private and not state or public hands. If we consider the elements contained in Fascism, one major component is the state being subservient to business. Tax dollars from private individuals were funneled to private corporations, thus making the state economically subservient to business economically.

If we consider the findings of the Princeton/Northwestern study regarding the influence of wealth on the outcome of elections and policy, we see an Oligrachy. The rise of Neoliberalism, its effect on the individual, business, government, and how all three interact and ultimately, business making the individual and the government subservient to the former, we see fascism. Not only are we an Oligarchy, the state serving the needs of the elite few, we are an Oligarchy that makes the state subservient to business or economic theory in Capitalism, through fascist policies; Fascist Oligarchy. The elite few have used corporations, that are kept functioning by working taxpayers to hijack the state in order to use the state as an apparatus of control on the taxpayer to serve the wealthy elite; class warfare.