Does American now have oligarchs?

When the Soviet Union fell, a collection of individuals took control of privatized industries and began to accumulate massive wealth and political power. These individuals were called oligarchs, a term meaning a small group who together hold political power.

Now liberal pundit Robert Reich is talking about American oligarchs. Do we really have powerful oligarchs here in America, or is that only for totalitarian countries?

Oligarchs aren’t just rich — they’re corrupt

All oligarchs are billionaires, but not all billionaires are oligarchs. Here’s how I see it:

An oligarch is a multi-billionaire who wields power with government officials and uses that power to enrich himself and benefit his businesses. Oligarchs sidestep democratic processes to turn the government’s benefits towards themselves and escape prosecution for violations of the law.

So they’re not just rich, they’re corrupt.

Elon Musk is the model here: he’s bought influence with President-elect Trump, and will likely use that influence to win more government contracts (for SpaceX), influence legislation to benefit his companies, and escape regulation. Musk is going to head up a government agency to cut waste in government. Do you imagine that agency will cut space contracts or government subsidies for solar power, electric cars, or charging infrastructure?

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos contributed a million dollars to Trump’s inaugural. Is this an investment in keeping the Post free from meddling?

Trump’s inaugural received million-dollar contributions from Google, Meta, Boeing, Microsoft, Uber, and OpenAI. I’m not saying that the CEOs of those corporations are oligarchs. But the certainly bear watching.

A lot of these companies got where they are by failing to obey conventional rules (except that now, that’s called “disruption”). Meta is a media company with no liability for what you read there. Uber is a transportation company that came into existence by dodging taxi regulation. OpenAI trained its large language model on huge swaths of copyrighted content without permission. How the government looks at these moves depends a lot on the influence of the rich oligarchs they have created.

Will Trump’s FTC drop the antitrust suit it just won against Google? If so, that will be a sign that the oligarchs are becoming more powerful.

I think it’s too soon to declare America an oligarchy — the rule of law still applies, and the government doesn’t become corrupt overnight. There are still thousands of people in government attempting to loyally enforce laws and execute existing legislation fairly.

But it may not stay that way.

Here’s what Reich wrote:

As oligarchs fill the coffers of political candidates and deploy platoons of lobbyists and public relations flaks, they buy off democracy. Oligarchs know that politicians won’t bite the hands that feed them.

As long as they control the purse strings, there will be no meaningful response to the failure of most people’s paychecks to rise, nor to climate change, nor racism, nor the soaring costs of health insurance, pharmaceuticals, college, and housing, because those are not the main concerns of the oligarchy. . . .

The biggest divide in America today is not between “right” and “left,” or between Republicans and Democrats. It’s between democracy and oligarchy. The old labels — “right” and “left” — prevent most people from noticing they’re being shafted.

Stay on alert

There are a lot of possible explanations for problems like inflation, expensive and poor health care, lack of housing, global warming, and drug addiction. You can hear many of them every night on Fox News.

But if America’s worst problems remain unaddressed while the richest Americans get richer, you should reconsider if your faith in the new oligarchs is well placed.

We still live in a democracy, not an oligarchy. We can still throw the bums out if they behave corruptly. Let’s make sure it stays that way.