So what? Well, it appears to be that we will always have an “-ocracy” or “-archy” of some kind, and it may not always make a lot of difference whether to the average guy what the prefix is. A plutocracy appears to be a type of oligarchy; that is, a society in which access to resources is controlled by a subset of the members of the society. Plutocracy appears to be differentiated from other forms of oligarchy in that the external manifestation of the control over resources takes the form of money. In other forms of oligarchy, such as medieval feudalism or the modern police state, control may be manifested in other ways, such as the use of violence to constrain the behavior of non-members of the control group. Indeed, some people today view the modern concept of obligations of the “State” (whatever that is) as the modern survival of the concept of noblesse oblige, pursuant to which medieval and renaissance oligarchs were viewed as having an obligation to do certain things for the rest of society, in exchange for the oligarchy’s near monopoly on access to resources.

I admit that I wish I had a lot of money, and I also admit that I think the ideal form of government would be an absolute dictatorship with me as the absolute dictator. In the absence of great wealth or such an ideal form of government, however, it is not clear to me that a plutocracy is the worst type of society imaginable. I’d rather have someone shoving a Rolex watch or other luxury goods in my face than have to deal with demands for the exercise of droit du seigneur, etc. by the local strongman.

It takes a plant, 4 gallons of water to turn out enough oxygen to replace the oxygen consumed in burning a gallon of gasoline. Every year we consume 16 billion “tonnes” of oxgyen from the air we breathe using fossil fuels world wide per year. I have checked these figures with a PHD in Chemistry, and he felt the chemical equations are correct. A water temperature inversion which kills aquatic life, does happen to air temperature, too. We might find that one day, a sudden cold change in temperature will suffocate large numbers of people. Just a different kind of pollution. Point is, “Rich people will suffocate too.” We need solar and wind power, electric cars as soon as possible.

WINJC

what a joke – “economic mobility” is a reality distortion field for neo-feudal slavery

the plutocracy is downgrading the us middle class into a foxconn generation,

aka. part-time sweatshops

be grateful for being part of the “big apple”

All that it takes to deal with the plutocratic class is to take their money and property from them, and then permanently expel them. All wealth is held at the pleasure of the State, and all law is but decree. This is a single sentence summary of the American system as it currently operates. If the public desires, this it can do and in the process sweep away those who wish those rules to only be applied by themselves and not by the people.

The State must at least pretend to be fair.

I couldn’t find any argument at all in Freeland’s excerpt or this rejoinder.

What, exactly is the thesis?

Ryan’s final sentence can be rephrased as saying that if some new technology does not emerge to magically restore the middle class, the middle class will have to restore itself through political means or leave that to the “benevolence” of billionaires. How such a political development might be brought about by a middle class after the “benevolent” billionaires have sapped it of political power is not indicated by Ryan.

What you say is not worth my time to give you a reasoned response, nor could I fashion one that would pass the censorship imposed for anyone telling the truth about these people.