Ideology, Politics and the Concentration of Capital

Abstract

The concentration of wealth in the United States has reached its highest level ever, equal to what it was on the eve of World War I.   The wealthy maintain their wealth - sheltering it from confiscation via taxation - mainly through ideological means.  Influencing politics directly through campaign financing and lobbying are important, but probably less important than the creation of pro-capitalist ideology among voters, which occurs through myriad means. The polarization in the US Congress has followed closely, over the past 200 years, the polarization of wealth.   As the top 1% become ever wealthier, they expend more resources attempting to prevent Congress from confiscating their wealth, which probably explains the ever-rightward movement of the US Republican Party.

Keywords

• Income Distribution
• Politics
• Capital

Ideology, Politics and the Concentration of Capital

Abstract

The concentration of wealth in the United States has reached its highest level ever, equal to what it was on the eve of World War I. The wealthy maintain their wealth - sheltering it from confiscation via taxation - mainly through ideological means. Influencing politics directly through campaign financing and lobbying are important, but probably less important than the creation of pro-capitalist ideology among voters, which occurs through myriad means. The polarization in the US Congress has followed closely, over the past 200 years, the polarization of wealth. As the top 1% become ever wealthier, they expend more resources attempting to prevent Congress from confiscating their wealth, which probably explains the ever-rightward movement of the US Republican Party. 

Keywords

• Income distribution
• politics
• capital

References

1. Lee, W. & Roemer, J. E. (2006), 'Racism and redistribution in the United States: A solution to the problem of American exceptionalism', Journal of Public Economics 90(6-7), 1027 - 1052.
2. McCarty, N.; Poole, K. & Rosenthal, H. (2007), Polarized America: The dance of ideology and unequal riches, MIT Press.
3. Piketty, T. (2014), Capital in the twentieth century, Harvard University Press.
4. Saez, E. & Zucman, G. (2014), 'Wealth Inequality in the United States since 1913: Evidence from Capitalized Income Tax Data'(20625), Technical report, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.