- government by the few;
- a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes; also: a group exercising such control
It takes a lot of money to get elected; the average member of Congress spent $516,000 to get elected in the last election. How many people do you know can spend that kind of money? So because some people feel they can make a difference or because they have further political ambitions, they decide to run for office. Because of the high cost, in many cases getting elected comes down to convincing special interests you will support their causes and help them once you are elected. If you have a process where most likely the person who spends the most gets elected, then by definition you have a government by the few.
If you set aside all the wonderful language in the Constitution about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and dig into the body of law by which our country is governed, you can quickly come to the conclusion the "Founding Fathers" were rich men looking for a way to stay rich men without having to share their wealth with a monarchy across the Atlantic Ocean. It seems to me the United States has truly become their promised land. To read more about the concentration of wealth in the United States and the effects it is having on the middle class, please see:
http://harvardmagazine.com/2008/07/unequal-america.html
It appears to me the playing field needs to be more level in order to allow the United States to return to economic preeminence. Without a healthy middle class, there is nobody to buy what American companies have to sell. Henry Ford built his wealth making sure he paid his workers enough to be able to afford what he was manufacturing. It sounds like a good idea to me, so spreading the wealth more equally is actually better for America in the long run.
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