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Depends on the rules and laws. The system tends to be very good at punishing rich people that swindle money from other rich people.
by isk517 5y ago
Depends on the rules and laws. The system tends to be very good at punishing rich people that swindle money from other rich people.
- taylodl 5y agoIn other words, when the elite are impacted the full force of law will be brought to bear on the perpetrator of the injustice. This used to be called aristocracy. We've spent the past 250 years pretending it doesn't exist here in the States.
- colpabar 5y agoI find it funny how we use phrases like "Russian oligarchs" all the time without batting an eye, but we never use them when referring to the Bushes or the Clintons in the US.
- JadeNB 5y agoThere's a minor genre of imagining US journalism standards for world reporting applied to reporting on the US: https://slate.com/tag/if-it-happened-there https://slate.com/tag/if-it-happened-there
- alanlammiman 5y agoLOL. It's telling that even in these satires they don't quite get the tone right - it still has a tinge of US- centrism in there
- kevin_thibedeau 5y agoThe power resides in generational wealth not some commoners who got lucky. These people don't need to hold elected office because they can buy whatever they want, including manipulating government in their favor.
- ipaddr 5y agoThe Clintons and Bushes are not really oligarchs. They represent a monarchy maybe of inherited wealth and status. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerburg are better examples of oligarchs because they managed to create their own wealth and with that obtained political clout.
- cratermoon 5y ago> they managed to create their own wealth Haha, there's that fiction. See how deeply it pervades all thinking about power and success in the US?
- Ekaros 5y agoI take that politicians are more of useful tools. Not the people who have any real power or wealth.
- JadeNB 5y ago> The system tends to be very good at punishing rich people that swindle money from other rich people. … Eventually? I'm surely not the only one who thinks of Madoff first, and he got away with it for almost a decade after suspicions were first reported.
- tsimionescu 5y agoAh, but Madoff was also making money for other rich people, so the system took some time to decide what to do.
- isk517 5y agoMadoff got 150 years once he was convicted, though you are correct, I probably should have stated that the system is very good at punishing rich people that are CAUGHT swindling other rich people.