Slightly Benevolent Millionaire or Billionaire vs. Slightly Malevolent Millionaire or Billionaire (or Friends of $)

We used to be ruled by Kings and Queens. We assumed those Kings and Queens were very special people with some kind of mandate from God. Then there were all the other hangers on, you know, the Ruling Class.  Then, somewhere along the way, lots of folks figured out that the Kings and Queens were really just people in fancy clothes. For the most part we've done away with that mode of governing ourselves. And the change was kind of hard and a little messy. People lost their heads and got hung from posts and stamped into the dirt by mobs. Change can be messy.

We now use the ballot box to decide who gets to tell us what to do. Since we elect them, we expect them to tell us to do what we want them to tell us to do. I always vote. I like voting. But from the beginning, I realized I was always voting for people, not Super-heros, and people are flawed, and fallible, and contradictory. And they say lots of things, and promise things, and sometimes they try to do what they say they are going to do, and some of them will actually do the opposite of what they say they want to do. The people we elect are very much just like us!

Still, you've got to watch out for the ones who say one thing and do another. And some of these folks are really, really good at making you think one thing and doing another. That's talent! So yes, voting. Sometimes it's a case of voting for the slightly incompetent person, vs. the slightly malevolent person. But hell, it is a choice!

Now, in the USA, the land of $, we have decided that $ talks, and $ walks, and people who have $ or who can raise lots of $ are the ones who should be in charge. So often we are choosing between the Slightly Benevolent Millionaire or Billionaire, (or the good friend of lots of Millionaires or Billionaires) vs. the Slightly Malevolent Millionaire or Billionaire (or the good friend of lots of Millionaires or Billionaires).

The result - we are ruled by Millionaires, Billionaires (or good friends of Millionaires and Billionaires). Now maybe we think these folks have some kind of mandate from God, but in this case that God is $.  We expect the Filthy Rich, or the friends of the Filthy Rich will be nice to us, that they will make decisions good for us. Good for the Country.  But not sure if this makes any sense at all.

I think those Millionaires and Billionaires bow down to the mighty $, and they don't really see a "country" they just see lot of $$$$'s and opportunities to make more $. And if any of those $ trickle down to the common folk, well, it's probably just "leakage."

Anyway, not sure those Millionaires and Billionaires and friends of the $ really have any special mandate from God or special knowledge about anything. As Paul Krugman points out, they may not even have any special knowledge about money and how it works. So people with money, are they really qualified to be making decisions for us?  Probably not. They are just people with $ in their bank accounts. Nothing Kingly, and not so special, and well, it's not surprising that most of the country seems so disconnected from the moneyed class of people we have given the keys to the kingdom. $ rule. And the $ only serves the $!