Study: The U.S. Has Likely Been An Oligarchy For Decades

[Aramas]

The United States never was anything but an oligarchy.

[Raver]

The United States never was anything but an oligarchy.

Maybe, but I think the transition from a representative democracy or a constitutional republic to an oligarchy for the U.S. happened some time during the 20th century. 1913 is a popular time for that transition because of the 1913 federal reserve act passed by Woodrow Wilson:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_Act

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critic...ederal_Reserve

The great depression is often blamed on this act and similar volatile market recessions benefiting the wealthy elite at the expense of the general public that followed afterwards. However, the transition to an oligarchy could of possibly happened earlier or later and more gradually and for different reasons.

[Samuel Leopold]

Supply-side, "trickle down" economics...... If there's one thing I'm curious to know, it's whether the advocates of that theory ever honestly believed that it would work as proclaimed. Sure, you've got charities like the Gates Foundation, but not all the economic elite are like Bill Gates.

[Tearsofaclown]

Supply-side, "trickle down" economics...... If there's one thing I'm curious to know, it's whether the advocates of that theory ever honestly believed that it would work as proclaimed. Sure, you've got charities like the Gates Foundation, but not all the economic elite are like Bill Gates.

And these rich guys donating to charity does not change the structural economic problem that allows them to be that rich in the first place. Bill Gates' charity does zero to solve the oligarchy problem.

I play the stock market and often look at insider selling. These guys are selling tens of millions worth of stock. Executives from all sorts of companies. It is kind of depressing and annoying to see them cashing out numbers so big.

[Aramas]

Maybe, but I think the transition from a representative democracy to oligrachy for the U.S. happened some time during the 20th century. 1913 is a popular time for that transition because of the 1913 federal reserve act passed by Woodrow Wilson:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_Act

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crit...ederal_Reserve

The great depression is often blamed on this act and similar volatile market recessions benefiting the wealthy elite at the expense of the general public that followed afterwards. However, the transition to an oligarchy could of possibly happened earlier or later and more gradually and for different reasons.

When the United States was founded, only landowning white men could vote. How's that democratic? It's closer to Athenian democracy, but not to the present day idea of it.