When Swine Rules the U.S., Russia and Ukraine
When Swine Rules the U.S., Russia and Ukraine
08 December 2013 | Issue 5272
By Alexei Bayer
A banker friend noted recently that even though several investment banks were wrecked by corruption, greed, rigging rates and currency markets and selling fraudulent financial products, their senior executives went home safe and rich. No one was stripped of their assets or thrown in jail.
~snip~
Indeed, there are striking similarities between top-heavy income distribution in Russia and the U.S. The two countries are increasingly run for the benefit of their super-wealthy. Their elites are also similar: They did not inherit wealth and privilege but made their fortunes over the past two decades. Although there were differences in the standards of living and quality of life, they came from middle-class families in their respective societies. Russians got free Soviet education, and their U.S. counterparts went to universities on scholarships or through government-subsided loans. In other words, they benefited from systems which had to be whittled down for them to become so wealthy — and which their untaxed wealth continues to undermine.
Not surprisingly, there is growing kinship between the super-wealthy in Russia and the U.S. They have more in common with each other than with their countrymen. They share pastimes, own adjacent real estate and attend each other's parties.
~snip~
Absolute wealth corrupts just as much as absolute power. As political commentator Andrei Piontkovsky recently observed, Roman matrons paraded naked in front of their slaves since they did not regard them as human. Americans and Russians could feel a kind of solidarity: They are both ruled by swine.