Here’s a nice summation of their impact upon our, eh, situation.
The 1 percent unleashed Trump: Savage capitalism has brought us to the brink of apocalypse
Wages have flattened, and the wealth gap has become an unbridgeable chasm. America was ripe for a populist uprising
ANTHONY J. GAUGHAN
Salon.com, MAY 4, 2016
Excerpt...
Harvard’s military death toll is particularly staggering when one considers that in the early 20th century, Harvard’s student body was drawn primarily from America’s richest and most well-connected families. Those families could have pulled strings to ensure their sons stayed out of combat. But they did not, as powerfully demonstrated by the list of names at Memorial Church and similar memorials across the Ivy League. During the world wars, the upper classes did their part to defend the nation.
Things could not be more different today. Only a small number of Harvard alumni serve in the military, and until recently, the university barred the military’s officer training programs from campus.
Harvard is not unique. Military experience is rare among America’s political and economic elite. None of the current presidential candidates has served in the military, and only 18 percent of members of Congress are veterans, the lowest percentage in generations.
As the children of elites have opted out of military service, middle-class and working-class families have taken up the slack, providing the vast majority of the nation’s service members.
Mitt Romney, an immensely wealthy Harvard graduate, revealed the cavalier attitude of the rich toward military service during the 2008 presidential campaign. As the Iraq and Afghanistan wars raged, critics pointed out that none of Romney’s five sons had served in the military. In response, Romney defended his sons by declaring that they served their country by “helping me get elected.”
The fact that Romney viewed working on a relative’s political campaign as the patriotic equivalent of battlefield service revealed just how tone-deaf many in America’s upper classes have become.
Continues...
https://www.salon.com/2016/05/04/the_1_percent_unleashed_trump_savage_capitalism_has_brought_us_to_the_brink_of_apocalypse_partner/
No wonder the Russians like Trump. He’s killing us for them.
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