Revolt of the Rich
Missus Jennifer Lowe
English 1303
11/2/12
America’s Plutocracy is Revolting
For the past couple of years, there seems to a new subject that is engulfing social circles, the internet, and the news. It seems as if citizens have discovered the 1%, or America’s richest individuals. Some have dismissed these reports as inflated statistics, greatly exaggerated and that an individual cannot own that much money. In reality, America is very much controlled by a wealthy elite, as explained by Mike Lofgren in his article “Revolt of the Rich”. Lofgren proposes that the wealthy elite in America are transitioning into separating themselves from the common population.
Mike Lofgren’s “Revolt of the Rich”, published on August 27, 2012, describes how the financial elitists in America have seceded from the country. Mike Lofgren explains “I do not mean secession by physical withdrawal from the territory of the state. . . What I mean by secession is a withdrawal into enclaves, an internal immigration, whereby the rich disconnect themselves from the civic life of the nation and from any concern about its wellbeing except as a place to extract loot.” He uses multiple cases where the result of the rich separating is apparent to solidify his claim, examples such as when presidential candidates, such as Mitt Romney, try to provide “normal-guy” anecdotes but they across as very strained. Or when well-off families send their kids to get a private education, while “reforming” the public education’s funding. Lofgren’s biased opinion is obvious throughout the article, constantly providing ironic examples and criticizing rich individuals in today’s society. He then claims that the reason for this plutocracy lies deeply embedded in our religious beliefs and our foundation of government, providing evidence from the constitution to describing how the country was based upon the idea that wealth ultimately equaled godliness. Lofgren makes an accurate comparison to his theory by stating, “Our
English 1303
11/2/12
America’s Plutocracy is Revolting
For the past couple of years, there seems to a new subject that is engulfing social circles, the internet, and the news. It seems as if citizens have discovered the 1%, or America’s richest individuals. Some have dismissed these reports as inflated statistics, greatly exaggerated and that an individual cannot own that much money. In reality, America is very much controlled by a wealthy elite, as explained by Mike Lofgren in his article “Revolt of the Rich”. Lofgren proposes that the wealthy elite in America are transitioning into separating themselves from the common population.
Mike Lofgren’s “Revolt of the Rich”, published on August 27, 2012, describes how the financial elitists in America have seceded from the country. Mike Lofgren explains “I do not mean secession by physical withdrawal from the territory of the state. . . What I mean by secession is a withdrawal into enclaves, an internal immigration, whereby the rich disconnect themselves from the civic life of the nation and from any concern about its wellbeing except as a place to extract loot.” He uses multiple cases where the result of the rich separating is apparent to solidify his claim, examples such as when presidential candidates, such as Mitt Romney, try to provide “normal-guy” anecdotes but they across as very strained. Or when well-off families send their kids to get a private education, while “reforming” the public education’s funding. Lofgren’s biased opinion is obvious throughout the article, constantly providing ironic examples and criticizing rich individuals in today’s society. He then claims that the reason for this plutocracy lies deeply embedded in our religious beliefs and our foundation of government, providing evidence from the constitution to describing how the country was based upon the idea that wealth ultimately equaled godliness. Lofgren makes an accurate comparison to his theory by stating, “Our
Cited: Lofgren, Mike. "Revolt of the Rich”. The American Conservative, 27 Aug. 2012. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/revolt-of-the-rich