海角大神

If wealth and income weren鈥檛 already so concentrated in the hands of a few, the shameful 鈥淢cCutcheon鈥� decision by the five Republican appointees to the Supreme Court wouldn鈥檛 be as dangerous. But by taking 鈥淐itizen鈥檚 United鈥� one step further and effectively eviscerating campaign finance laws, the Court has issued an invitation to oligarchy.

Almost limitless political donations coupled with America鈥檚 dramatically widening inequality create a vicious cycle in which the wealthy buy votes that lower their taxes, give them bailouts and subsidies, and deregulate their businesses 鈥� thereby making them even wealthier and capable of buying even more votes. Corruption breeds more corruption.

That the richest four hundred Americans now have more wealth than the poorest 150 million Americans put together, the wealthiest 1 percent own over 35 percent of the nation鈥檚 private assets, and 95 percent of all the economic gains since the start of the recovery in 2009 have gone to the top 1 percent 鈥� all of this is cause for worry, and not just because it means the middle class lacks the purchasing power necessary to get the economy out of first gear.听

It is also worrisome because such great concentrations of wealth so readily compound themselves through politics, rigging the game in their favor and against everyone else. 鈥淢cCutcheon鈥� merely accelerates this vicious cycle.听 听

As Thomas Piketty shows in his monumental 鈥淐apital in the Twenty-First Century,鈥� this was the pattern in advanced economies through much of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. And it is coming to be the pattern once again. 听

Picketty is pessimistic that much can be done to reverse it (his sweeping economic data suggest that slow growth will almost automatically concentrate great wealth in a relatively few hands). But he disregards the political upheavals and reforms that such wealth concentrations often inspire 鈥� such as America鈥檚 populist revolts of the 1890s followed by the progressive era, or the German socialist movement in the 1870s followed by Otto von Bismarck鈥檚 creation of the first welfare state.

In America of the late nineteenth century, the lackeys of robber barons literally deposited sacks of money on the desks of pliant legislators, prompting the great jurist Louis Brandeis to note that the nation had a choice: 鈥淲e can have a democracy or we can have great wealth in the hands of a few,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut we cannot have both.鈥� 听Soon thereafter America made the choice. Public outrage gave birth to the nation鈥檚 first campaign finance laws, along with the first progressive income tax. The trusts were broken up and regulations imposed to bar impure food and drugs. Several states enacted America鈥檚 first labor protections, including the 40-hour workweek.

听The question is when do we reach another tipping point, and what happens then?