Musk and Bezos again remind us oligarchs control the US-when will the people take back the power?!

The anger towards the oligarchs is building!

Every day we are reminded of the oligarchy that runs America. On Wednesday, we saw not one--but two glaring examples.

First was Elon Musk—the wealthiest person in the world and Donald Trump’s top donor--speaking at Trump’s first cabinet meeting even though he is not a member of the cabinet. In fact, the Trump administration’s latest tale is that Musk doesn’t even head “DOGE” rather the boss is someone named “Amy Gleason”—which we must assume is simply Musk’s drag queen name.

But there was Musk holding court telling the Senate confirmed members of the cabinet what they need to cut from their budget. This is what a plutocracy looks like—which is a government by the wealthy, for the wealthy.

None of Musk’s proposed costs include the nearly $40 billion in government contracts he has benefited from as The Washington Post reported Wednesday. And the massive cuts being demanded are simply intended to justify a tax cut for Musk and his fellow oligarchs.

But that was not the only obscenely wealthy person working the system to make even more money. Jeff Bezos—who is currently the second wealthiest man in the world—was taking a page from Musk using Twitter as a platform to help his agenda but in the case with his own Washington Post.

Bezos announced Wednesday that the Washington Post would be going in a new direction. As you might imagine, it’s not anti-Trump—especially given during the campaign Bezos blocked an endorsement of Vice President Harris. Bluntly, the new focus of the famed Washington Post editorial page will be pro-oligarchy.

“I’m writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages,” Bezos wrote. He then revealed the new mandate, “We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”

After noting the editor of the editorial page quit in protest, he continued: “A big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.”

He concluded, “I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America…I’m excited for us together to fill that void.”

Let’s break this down. First there was this Bezos’s passage: “a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.”

That conjures up the famous monologue from the movie, “Wall Street” where Gordon Gekko—played by Michael Douglass-delivered a speech along the same lines. But instead of the word “freedom,” he used the actual word Bezos meant: “Greed.”

As “Gekko” stated to shareholders of “Teldar Paper”-a company he was trying to take control of: “The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed -- for lack of a better word -- is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms -- greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge -- has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed -- you mark my words -- will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.”

That takes us to Bezos’s other mandate: “free market.” When you hear that economic concept from the second wealthiest person in the world, that, too, means one thing: Greed. That is why fellow oligarch Musk applauded Bezos’ new policy on Twitter writing, “Bravo.”

A free market economy--at its essence--means “an unregulated system of economic exchange, in which taxes, quality controls, and other forms of centralized economic interventions by government either do not exist or are minimal.”

You see, Bezos who is already obscenely wealthy, wants less taxes and no regulations. That will allow him to buy up competitors and create a monopoly--which is great for him but for bad for us. As economists warn, in a free market economy, “firms with a high market share will be able to set higher prices for consumers.”

In addition, free market economies—while economists note do offer some upsides—is very bad for the United States given our excessive income inequality. Free market economies tend to lead to even more income inequality—as the rich continue to get richer while the rest us struggle to make ends meet.

That is why we need the government to help level the playing field with a progressive tax code, blocking monopolies, the creation of social safety nets and more. But Bezos, Musk and the oligarchs are working to end that right in front of our eyes.

What makes this even more precarious is that our economy is not as solid as people may think given the extreme income inequality. One of the driving causes of the Great Depression was a level of income equality.

During the Gilded Age of the 1880’s to early 1900’s and the “Roaring Twenties,” income inequality increased wildly. By 1928, the top one percent of families received 23.9% of all pretax income. In contrast, 60% of families made less than $2,000 a year, the income level the Bureau of Labor Statistics classified as the minimum livable income for a family of five. So when the stock market crash of 1929 hit, the economy tumbled like a house of cards.

Where are we now? In the United States, the income gap between the rich and everyone else has been growing for more than 30 years. Currently, the top 1%, own 30% of the nation’s wealth. That is worse than 1929 when the top 1% owned 23.9% of the nation’s wealth.

How fragile is our economy? A recent study found that nearly 60% of Americans can’t afford an unexpected expense of $1,000. Worse, 37% of Americans in a recent survey indicated they can’t even afford a surprise $400 expense. As one financial expert recently told CBS news, “We are essentially a paycheck-to-paycheck nation."

The oligarchs of The Gilded Age—known then as robber barons-included the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, J. Piermont Morgan and Andrew Carnegie. Today it’s Musk, Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and others. But then like now, they all share the same insatiable lust for more wealth—and are more than willing to screw over the rest of us to get it.

People on both the left and right see this and are growing disgusted of being ruled by oligarchs. A new Reuters poll released last week found 71% believe the wealthy have too much influence on Trump's administration. In addition, 69% said they think the wealthy are making money off their White House connections. To see 70% agree means even Republicans are seeing this and growing angry.

In response to the arrogance of the Gilded Age oligarchs, our nation saw the Progressive Era that implemented key reforms. We must pursue the same--and in future articles I will focus in more detail on some of those reforms. But one thing is clear: the time for the people to take their power back is here.

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