Oligarchy was a word seldom expressed before the early 80s. In the U.S., oligarchy didn’t seem to exist; it did exist, but for most people, the oligarchy was not very noticeable.
The U.S. class structure has since dramatically changed. The Reagan years brought about large progressive tax rate reductions which expanded the pool of wealth in the upper echelons, which subsequently morphed into the oligarchy which runs the Nation today.
From Elon Musk’s $250 million contribution to the Trump re-election effort, to the current effort among New York financiers to defeat Mamdani in the upcoming New York City mayoral election, the oligarchy openly demonstrates its sway.
Mamdani, the New York mayoral candidate, describes himself as a Democratic Socialist. His crime: he openly condemns the genocide in Gaza; and he runs on an economic plank which supports free public transportation, rent restraints, publicly owned grocery stores, free childcare up to five years of age, and the construction of 200,000 affordable housing units within the City. To pay for this he would increase the City’s corporate tax rate, and add a 2% tax on individual incomes above $1 million. New York, with a fairly high per capita ratio of millionaires and billionaires, would seem to be able to afford the above program, if the will were there to do so.
But the will to do so is not there. New York is the financial capital of the world. It embeds hard-core competitive capitalism; the goal is to acquire private wealth, no matter the cost to the public good.
Herein lies the problem with the capitalist model: It is built on a flawed ideological foundation which narrowly promotes individual material self-interests, with little regard for the broader social impact of such behavior. In fact, it is based on the assumption that what is good for the individual is equally good for society. This weak argument is so full of holes, we won’t waste time picking it apart here.
Corresponding to the emphasis on material maximization among units, e.g. individuals, firms, and so forth, accounting structures reflect these values, and in-turn, the accounting framework straight-jackets individuals and firms within the system to act in the pre-described self-interested ways.
In other words, individual material self-interest over other concerns, is perpetuated through individualized accounting systems amongst firms and individuals, all of which, dependent on competitive capital markets, must show better accounting results than the next actor. Therefore, self-interest prevails. It’s Marxist thought displayed in capitalists’ behavior: The capitalist behavior is predetermined by the structural components of the system.
Capitalism cannot willingly promote the public good; its responsibility is to the shareholder. Consequently, it creates a value system anathema to the broader community, and in the process creates an oligarchical class increasingly detached from the people. Indeed, the people are mere assets to be managed in profitable ways, regardless of the consequences to them.
It is not that big money capitalists are necessarily evil, or rejoice in the oppression of the little guy, although some of that might exist, but leaders of capitalist firms are forced by the structure of the system to maximize profits. If the little guy gets squashed in the process, then this is merely a sad fact of the competitive world in which we live. This reasoning: the elevation of individual material self-interests relative to that which is humane, naturally leads towards war.
The false assumption of the competitive rationale is that humanity must continue within the competitive realm, rather than develop a cooperative framework, with new accounting systems, which reflect cooperative values.
Anyways, the New York mayoral election is worth following; it will lift the veil on capital vs. labor dynamics. This is a story of big money vs. the people. It will, to some extent, display where the real center of power lies.
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