I do not think the US is unique, indeed I would say that all modern western countries suffer the same problem. The elites were closet supporters of fascism unt

I do not think the US is unique, indeed I would say that all modern western countries suffer the same problem. The elites were closet supporters of fascism until they weren't. Then we had this anomalous period from the end of WW2 until the early 1970s when the Keyensians were dominant and governments pursued full employment economies via fiscal policy. The elites really can't abide sharing with labour, and capitalised on the early 1970s inflation/oil shock to promote their essentially neo-feudalist policies in the guise of neoliberalism/monetarism. The narrative of how all this came to pass is largely forgotten by mainstream economics, but there is an excellent series of posts, if dense at Bill Mitchell's blog[1] that cover this, and is much better than my crude paraphrasing. The logical end-point for rentiers is feudalism. Without communism as a viable alternate force, I think they are seeing how low that floor can go. [1] http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=32776 http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=32776 Part 10, 11 and 12 are particularly relevant