Study: ordinary Americans have virtually no impact whatsoever on the making of national policy.

[Octafish]

5. Those paying attention, no. About half of the American people don't bother to vote anymore.

Here's another academic who's done a good job of quantifying all this:

Who Rules America?

EXCERPT...

This document focuses on the "Top 1%" as a whole because that's been the traditional cut-off point for "the top" in academic studies, and because it's easy for us to keep in mind that we are talking about one in a hundred. But it is also important to realize that the lower half of that top 1% has far less than those in the top half; in fact, both wealth and income are super-concentrated in the top 0.1%, which is just one in a thousand. (To get an idea of the differences, take a look at an insider account by a long-time investment manager who works for the well-to-do and very rich. It nicely explains what the different levels have -- and how they got it. Also, David Cay Johnston (2011) has written a column about the differences among the top 1%, based on 2009 IRS information.)

CONTINUED w LINKS:

http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

PS: Really appreciate the OP and the new study, dixiegrrrrl. Truth is what Democracy craves.