Who's in charge here? Peace of mind should be on the house, shouldn't it? Do best-case scenarios exist outside of gambling halls and the NYSE?
Life is a gamble. Every step we take is a gamble. People half my age drop dead of massive heart attacks and strokes.
So insurance is definitely among the "ocracy" afflictions that torment society here.
What others are there? Mediaocracy (ask Danny Schechter). Corporatocracy. Plutocracy. Oligarchy. OPECocracy. Militarocracy. Big-lobbyocracy. Pharmaocracy. Legalocracy. And more.
And believe it all, a microscopic percentage of this country compose the above categories. We can lump them together as subjugation of those without wealth (ridiculed for accepting public assistance), those stuck in the middle class like my friend whose income allocations are described above, most of whose incomes are devoured by at least some of the ocracies--those stuck paying all the taxes, which lower them to near-poverty incomes without qualifying for public assistance.
The ruler is the above conglomerate: wealth. We are governed not by our votes but by dollars, because these days a millionaire might as well have a million votes, or does.
What's so different about that from ages gone by? Hasn't wealth in its many forms (see the above list) always run the show? Hippie clothes and organic foods are both profitable industries, but I believe that a few hippie communes in the wild reaches of this country exist more democratically, growing the food they eat, sewing the clothing that they wear, nursing their babies, and so forth. Their leaders don't inhabit dachas, but live the same lifestyle as do their groups. Greg Mortenson and his group don't wallow in wealth even though they raise millions to educate those starving for education in other remote outposts of existence.
So not quite all of us are diseased by the plutocracy, though admittedly, from time to time, most of the rest of us dance with it.
Who am I to join this fine minority, smaller than the number of millionaires and billionaires put together? Who will become the first trillionaire? Is anyone close to it?
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