Reply #13: The cycle goes like this:

[Speck Tater]

1. The poor outnumber the rich, so they vote to take money from the rich to help the poor (i.e. progressive taxation and beneficial social programs).

2. To defend themselves from the poor the rich minority buys more and more power until they control the government so that the superior number of votes of the poor no longer have power over the rich.

3. Once the rich own the government their greed destroys the middle class who are added to the ranks of the poor.

4. When the poor are sufficiently numerous and sufficiently downtrodden they rise up and throw the rich out of the government, and we go back to stage 1.

Right now we are transitioning from stage 2 to stage 3. The rich corporations own the government and they are in the process of destroying the middle class. In another generation from now the poor will reclaim their superior voting power and throw the rich out. But for now we are definitely in the corporatist stage of the cycle, like we were in the 1870's and 1920's. And that includes both political parties. They are both owned by the rich.