The Dis-United Strata of the United States

The United States of America in 2023, is not the greatest country in the world by any meaningful measure. Being 15^th in the 2022 human freedom score¹ and 129^th in the 2022 Global Peace Ranking for the safest country to live in² are not world leading measures. But then again, The United States of America does rank No. 2 in one notable measure. The US ranks only below Brazil for the most gun deaths in the world with an impressive 37,038 men, women and children killed by guns in 2019 or ten people for every 100,000 people in the country.

But what is it about the USA that makes it stand out in the world for both good and bad? What is unique about this one country?  The US prides itself on its freedoms.  The people are constantly told that the US is the most free country in the world, and that all other countries want their freedoms.  Is this True? No!  Many countries have the freedoms that the U.S has and there are countries with more freedom. So, Is there a trait that makes the U.S. unique? Rather than, as is widely stated, being a democracy, or a republic, the U.S. is actually a Corporatocracy.  A country where corporations control the government and run the country.

In this essay, I will try to explain the source, history, and structure of the U.S. that describes its Corporatocracy.  The U.S., a bastion of democracy as presented to its people, is a fraud, intentionally, and constantly perpetuated.  Government ‘for the people and by the people’, doesn’t exist, and most of its population know it. The saying that ‘The U.S. is the land of opportunity’, is likely demonstratively true, but success depends on corporate success,and those who achieve the benefits of that opportunity are few and far between. 

As will be shown in this essay, the chances of an individual gaining the benefits of the afore mentioned opportunity depends on the strata or the level of hierarchy in which they find themselves.

My intent here is not to judge. The U.S. is what it is. There are probably good arguments for benefits in the U.S. system.  My intent is only to state my case.  It is not my intent, nor my expertise, to judge, although I believe that some possible improvements may become self-evident.

The key to understanding the U.S. system is to understand the stratification of U.S. power.

US STRATIFICATION

1. CORPORATE ELITES – run the show behind the scenes and control the political elites
2. POLITICAL ELITES – perpetuate the illusion of democracy
3. ENABLERS – prop up the corporate elites and legitimize their illusion
4. THE SUBSERVIENT – the walking dead – the followers – and the brainwashed.
5. THE CAST-OFFS – the lost and left behind
6. THE SCAPEGOATS – the blamed, feared, shunned and persecuted

The top layer of U.S. power belongs to the Corporate Elite. The U.S.A. has always been run by its Rich Business Elites. Even in its earliest days, the rich controlled the nation.  The Founding Fathers were among the wealthiest people in the Colonies when they drafted and signed the Constitution, and the rich business elites were pretty much who they expected to continue to guide the young nation.  They thought the vote ought to be reserved for people of wealth and education.  According to Bruce Kuklick, professor emeritus of American History at the University of Pennsylvania, “the framers of the Constitution had a very different idea of democracy than Americans do today.  The founders didn’t want democracy for all. The Constitution was written so that citizenship rights were very, very limited,” he says. “They worried about democracy … It was a bad form of government in their minds. They felt that once you let everybody participate, they were likely to elect a demagogue. You were likely to have people come to power who would appeal to the frenzy of the uneducated masses”. That of course could never be the case today?  The founding fathers envisioned a country governed by people like them, the rich and powerful.

THE REVOLUTION – A POPULAR UPRISING?

The American revolution is generally understood to have been a popular uprising, caused by unfair British taxation, The taxation acts of 1764, the Sugar Act, Stamp Act and the Townshend Act (Tea Tax) were all, according to the revolutionaries, taxation without representation.   Yet directly after the war of Independence, taxation increased.  The wealthy business men, once in power, imposed there own taxation, including poll taxes on voters, property taxes on land and commercial buildings. In addition, there were the state and federal excise taxes. 

THE BOSTON TEA PARTY

Another cause of the American Revolution was “The Boston Massacre”

At the Boston Massacre of March, 1770, Tensions between soldiers and civilians eventually resulted in the killing of five civilians by British Troops. One of the leaders, Sam Adams, as described by historian John Miller, deliberately provoked the incident to promote his secret agenda of American independence. ( Adams encouraged Captain Parker, in command of the militia at Lexington, to make a stand there in the hope of provoking bloodshed and thus consolidating colonial public opinion in favor of rebellion. This charge apparently has its source in a remark by Harold Murdock in his “Historic Doubts on the Battle of Lexington” published in 1769, and repeated in his ‘The Nineteenth of April, 1775″ published seven years later. ³

 The protesters involved were probably deliberately duped into putting themselves at risk.

CONTROL OF THE PRESS

The press is and always has been in support of the corporate elites.  Often particular publishers support one or another of different power dynamics, but always as directed by their corporate elite masters. This applied from the beginning of the country.

1721 – The New York Journal contained many pieces written by strong advocates of independence – published by – John Holt (1721—1784) who was the mayor of Williamsburg, Virginia, was involved with publishing the Connecticut Gazette, the New York Gazette, and the New-York Journal newspapers. He worked with Benjamin Franklin, and the prominent publisher James Parker, and Founding Father Samuel Adams. 

The Providence Gazette, the most important and influential newspaper published in Rhode Island in the 18^th century was published by William Goddard  an early American patriot, publisher, printer and postal inspector. He was a member of the Sons of Liberty and a protégé of Benjamin Franklin.

The New Hampshire Gazette AKA  The Freeman’s Journal– published by Daniel Fowle who was related by marriage to the Governor of New Hampshire Benning Wentworth.

So, in short, the causes of the American Revolution were, that the wealthy men in the colonies didn’t want to be taxed by Britain without their input.  They preferred running their own country and taxing common Americans without their input.  They controlled the press and manipulated the populous to their ends.  To understand just how this could have been done, one must only look at Donald Trump’s control of much of today’s Americans.  And so it began.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE – ANNOTATED

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all (Wealthy, White) men are created equal; that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of (MORE WEALTH) and happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among these (WEALTHY) men, deriving their just powers from the ( unwitting) consent of the (POOR UNEDUCATED) governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the (WEALTHY MEN) people to alter or to abolish it, …

AMERICAN EXPANSION

After the formation of the new country, the rich bought up huge tracts of land to the west, at bargain prices, from their friends in government, and then sold the land to the common people at inflated prices, thus amounting huge fortunes.  The Natives, of course, who owned the land were vilified, attacked by the press and murdered by the army until their lands were occupied.  Any attempt by Native tribes to fight back, was shown as proof of the propaganda espoused by the wealthy that the natives were dangerous savages.

In the first continental congress, the government of the United States adopted the the legal position that Indian land belonged to the Indians, but Native tribes could only sell their land to the United States Government. Thomas Pickering, sent in the 1790s to negotiate with the Six Nations, reported to George Washington that, “Indians have so often been deceived by White people, that ‘White Man’ is among them, but another name for Liar.” Pickering noted that he personally, as the representative of the President of the United States, was referred to by Natives as “the Town Destroyer.”15

John Quincy Adams’ viewpoint, was that Indians owned, “Their cultivated fields; their constructed habitations; a space of ample sufficiency for their subsistence”, and that was all. Adams argued, that the amount of land actually owned by natives was therefore a very small portion of the continent.

Washington and Cornplanter

In his response to a letter from Cornplanter, a Dutch-Seneca chief, warrior, and diplomat of the Seneca people., Washington stated that he could not enforce the land-protecting provisions of the 1784 Fort Stanwix treaty, because it was made under the Articles of Confederation, which were no longer in effect. However, he assured Cornplanter that the United States would honour future treaties. Despite this, speculators and state governments continued to take Indian lands. 16

WARS

The same wealthy Elites who eliminated the Native Americans in a series of Indian Wars with any native tribe that resisted their desired progress  (PROGRESS – Rich Americans getting richer), started other wars in further efforts to enrich themselves.  Examples such as wars with Canada, Mexico and Spain, and Occupations of Nicaragua, Haiti, and The Dominican Republic.  The rich also further enriched themselves during the First World War by trading with both sides through 1914 till 1917, when the forecast winner became apparent, and in WW2 still traded with Germany

THE POLITICAL ELITES

The Corporate Elites (The Really Rich) control the Political Elite (The Rich) – they get the politicians elected and they keep them there. Politicians, either have connections in the world of the Corporate Elite, or they foster relationships with the very rich in order to have their political careers financed.  Donations to political campaigns come from four main sources: political action committees or PACs; large individual contributions of more than $200; small individual contributions of $200 or less; and money from the candidates’ own pockets. “Other sources ” include things like dividends, interests and any earned income. Only one of these, small donations, comes from the general population. The tables below show how funds are raised by politicians running for election in each cycle.

Members’ source of funds comparison by chamber/party, 2022

In the 2021-2022 Campaign, Congressional candidates collected $3.8 billion and disbursed $ 3.7 billion, political parties received $ 2.1 billion and spent $2.2 billion, and political action committees (PACs) raised $9.3 billion and spent $9 billion. ⁴

In short, The members of the House of Representatives ( The Peoples’ House), owe 65 to 75.9 % of their position to the Corporate Elite, while Senators owe 56.9 to 68.2 % of their positions to their Corporate Elite benefactors.⁵

The Enablers are by far the most difficult to explain.  Enablers can simply be duped and unwilling participants, or they could be willing supporters or, in the most likely scenario, they start out innocent but develop into full fledged supporters through dependence.  Enablers are the upper middle class, well off but not rich.  Either through higher education, or through business success, enablers find themselves in a life-style range that promises potential Elite status.  But this promise only applies if they surrender to the political and social positions dictated by the elites. 

Enablers consist of ambitious small-business men, highly skilled experts in: law, finance, computer sciences, and pharmaceuticals, and middle level bureaucrats.  Enablers are often the talent and brains behind the corporate elites’ supposed success.  They are paid well and treated to many perks, in order to retain their loyalty.  Enablers also include clergy, and special interests to whom the elites promise social and political results favourable to those groups.  The Corporate Elites can promise these things through their control of the Political elites.  Unique to the U.S. is the role of Hollywood as enablers of the Corporate Elites.  When Corporate Elites differ in their objectives, Hollywood often splits with them.  Hollywood’s greatest acts of enablement have been through films that glorify American heroism and greatness, or dramatize visions of America supportive of the desired perspectives of the Corporate Elites. Any World War Two movie, “The head of the Office of War Information was Elmer Davis who said, ‘The easiest way to inject a propaganda idea into most people’s minds is to let it go through the medium of an entertainment picture when they do not realize they’re being propagandized,

Post war movies such as  ‘Gone With The Wind’, and ‘Gods and Generals’, are also good examples of movies that supported the views of the Corporate Elites. Historical accuracy is not a requirement.  Supposedly, to encourage an American audience, heroic movies even based on heroism by people from other countries inevitably have an American actor )Mel Gibson (NOT SCOTTISH)- Braveheart. as the central character, leader, and hero.  There are movies where actions are attributed to Americans which, in real life had no Americans involved ( U571 – US Submarine captures German Enigma machine). (Actually the story of a British Destroyer)14  The purpose of course is to present to Americans, a history which supports the Myths of the Corporate Elites. American history of course is routinely exaggerated, twisted, modified and whitewashed in order to maintain the appropriate myths.

Enablers, are the moderately wealthy, influential, members of the U.S. society that knowingly or not white wash the desires of the corporate Elite and then present them to the American people as normal or even desirable. 

THE SUBSERVIENT

The subservient are the duped members of the U.S. society.  The Subservient have been told that “The USA is the greatest country in the world”, since their first day in school.  They have been fed a diet of lies and deceit all their lives.  “The U.S. is the greatest country in the world”, they are told, and yet, U.S Infant mortality rates at 5.12 deaths/1000 live births are worse than Latvia, Serbia, and Cuba, Canada, UK, Switzerland, Israel, Germany, Italy or France⁶ .  The U.S. “for profit” Health Care System is the only such system in the developed world and yet Americans, with health insurance, co-pays, enormous bankrupting medical bills and unreliable care, only live to -79.74 years (BOTH SEXES)– Ranking 47^th worldwide ⁷ after, Japanese, Italians, Spanish, and Australians who live to 84 yrs, Swedes, Norwegians, Israelis, French, New Zealanders, and Canadians who live to 83yrs.  Icelanders, Finlanders, Belgians, Portuguese, British, and Germans live to 82yrs. ⁴    

The US also spends more money per person for health care than any other country at $15,275 per person ⁸. For that amount, you would think that the U.S. would have the best health outcomes. Notably, the U.S. ranked No. 23 for its public health system, moving down two spots on the list compared with its ranking in 2022. 15

WHY?

The U.S. Pharmaceutical, Health Insurance, and Hospital industries are members in good standing of the Enablers.  The rich get richer and the populous dies younger.  In 2022, the pharmaceuticals, insurance and health industries in the United States spent the most money on lobbying efforts, totalling about $532.19 million U.S. dollars.⁵

The subservient are Governed by their representation in government, which is controlled by the Elites and their Enablers but not much representation by them.  Just as envisioned by the founding fathers.

THE VOTE

Of course, the subservient get to vote.  But only after the Elites stack the deck.

GERRYMANDERING ⁹

In representative democracies, gerrymandering is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent to create undue advantage for a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. The manipulation may involve “cracking” (diluting the voting power of the opposing party’s supporters across many districts) or “packing” (concentrating the opposing party’s voting power in one district to reduce their voting power in other districts). Gerrymandering can also be used to protect incumbents. Wayne Dawkins describes it as politicians picking their voters instead of voters picking their politicians. NOTE: Gerrymandering is not a problem in other countries because of multiparty systems and independent boundary commissions.

The Elite also spin the agenda with misrepresentations or outright lies to confuse the subservient or maybe they simply present things in a way that subservient   are already conditioned to accept “Socialized Health care rather than a human right is sold as Communism and the population are told that it doesn’t work in contradiction to all of the facts.  All other developed countries have such healthcare systems, and they all work better than the U.S. system “The founding fathers felt that the citizens should be armed in order to fight any tyrannical government. The Elites support this fiction even as they, at the same time, encouraging support for the largest military in history”.  A military far more powerful than all of the citizenry, regardless of how well armed they think that they may be.

THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE ¹⁰

The founders of the U.S.A. had to make a compromise, they didn’t want the Congressional representatives to pick a president and they felt that a popular vote would be too difficult and would also provide the common man with too much power. Their compromise called for the creation, every four years of a temporary group of electors equal to the total number of representatives in Congress.  When people vote for president, they are really voting for an Elector from their state. They’re the ones who actually cast the votes that decide the election.  Each state has as many Electors in the Electoral College as it has Representatives in the House, and Senators in Congress. The District of Columbia has three.  That’s a total of 538 Electors. Each elector casts a vote, and those votes are tallied to get the results of an election.  A presidential nominee only needs 50% plus one or 270 electoral votes – to win.  In 29 states there are laws requiring that electors vote the same as the people who voted for them.  But there have been 157 times in US history that electors have cast their votes for someone other than the candidate chosen by the people.  There have been six United States presidential elections in which the successful presidential candidate did not receive a most popular votes.¹¹ They were John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, George W. Bush, Donald Trump-(TWICE)¹²

THE CAST -OFFS

Disenfranchisement and voter suppression have been undermining the U.S. democratic system since its inception.  There is a long history of political exclusion and racial subordination in the United States.  Originally, only land owners could vote. Not common labourers, women, slaves, non- Americans. Even today, politicians, if allowed, would prefer to pick their own voters, and they use every trick in their arsenal to achieve that end.  Candidates compete on a playing field designed over generations to protect capital, colonial ambitions, and supremacy of the white race. The anti-majoritarian Senate and Electoral College are distorted by the nation’s gerrymandered districts, a campaign finance system that licenses wide-scale legalized corruption, voting laws, on-site voting requirements, voter ID laws and immigration and naturalization policies that dictate which residents must live and work under laws that they have no voice in shaping. All fake efforts based on the misleading effort to restrict nonexistent voter fraud.  Millions more are disenfranchised due to incarceration and distorted felony convictions, or because they lived in Washington, D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, or the Northern Mariana Islands.  These voter suppression tactics are directed at leaving the cast-offs out of the democratic process completely.  The lies, distortions, unreal rules and their justifications are of course directed at the subservient in order to develop a popular belief system that supports the aims of the elites and disenfranchises the Cast-Offs.

THE SCAPEGOATS

The cast-offs aren’t at the bottom strata of American society.  That level is reserved for the Scapegoats.  The U.S. Elites must present a Boogeyman.  The issue is control. Make the people feel like the rulers will do what needs to be done in order to keep them safe? Buying into the fear beliefs of the tribe is a way to feel safe, and tens of millions of Americans don’t.  The partisan nature of the fear appeal narrative of the Corporate Elites magnifies its effectiveness, by tapping into not only our innate sensitivity to anything that might be a threat and our greater sensitivity to threats making news, but to our instinct to circle the tribal wagons to protect ourselves when we feel like we can’t protect ourselves as individuals.

The British were the first Boogeymen.  Those that the subservient must be afraid of, so that the Corporate Elites could protect them.  After the British came the Native Americans or savage, blood thirsty Indians. Then the Irish, Black People, Communists, Asians, Muslims, Jews, Latinos and Gays all have had, or are having their turns as scapegoats.  And the list continues.  Enablers such as Hollywood and the press eagerly support the Boogeyman vision. Movies present totally unrealistic violence and presents a society in which the population should always be prepared for violence.  The Press overly covers violence and under covers subsequent mitigating facts.  This fearmongering ends up with Americans being killed for knocking on someone’s door or for turning around in their driveway.  The Political Elite reinforce the Corporate Elites agenda by campaigning on fear.  Only they can reduce crime, even if crime is not really an issue.  Immigrants are all rapists and murderers even though there is no evidence of any truth to those statements. Politicians point out Boogeymen everywhere.  People who are afraid are easily controlled

The Corporate Elites run the country through their control of the Political Elites. The Enablers reinforce and support the Corporate Elite Agenda. The Corporate Elites, Political Elites an Enablers control the narrative presented to the subservient, thus controlling then.  The Subservient then, as directed by the upper classes, ostracize the cast-offs and the Scapegoats

1. https://freedomhouse.org/countries/freedom-world/scores,
2. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/safest-countries-in-the-world
3. https://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44574445.pdf
4. https://www.fec.gov/updates/statistical-summary-of-24-month-campaign-activity-of-the-2021-2022-election-cycle/
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_finance_in_the_United_States
6. https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/infant-mortality-rate/country-comparison/
7. https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/
8. https://www.cihi.ca/en/national-health-expenditure-trends-2022-snapshot#:~:text=Canada’s%20per%20capita%20spending%20on,and%20Australia%20(CA%247%2C248).
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_elections_in_which_the_winner_lost_the_popular_vote
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election
13. https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/disenfranchisement-an-american-tradition/
14. (https://www.cmich.edu/research/clarke-historical-library/explore-collection/explore-online/native-american-material/native-american-treaty-rights/land-transfers
15. https://www.google.com/search?q=American+submarine+captures+ENIGMA+MACHINE&sca_esv=587698495&sxsrf=AM9HkKmIojeK_XYMP80Pq5DuwfkcIM3lcw%3A1701705368684&ei=mPZtZYq-
16. //www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/treaty-of-paris
17. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/slideshows/countries-with-the-most-well-developed-public-health-care-system