The Social Skepticism movement manifests its goals through support of several specific special interest groups. These are interests of allegiance without exception, in which Social Skepticism seems to have an irrationally high focus, were it solely comprising an unstructured movement of individual ethic and science alone. Key among these partner special interests are the very familiar laundry list of control groups which manage our economically inflating agriculture, healthcare, health insurance, education, pharmaceuticals, universities and unions.
Merriam-Webster defines oligarchy as such:
Oligarchy
– ol·i·gar·chy – noun \ˈä-lə-ˌgär-kē \ : a government, business, etc. in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes; also : a group exercising such control
Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page have applied analytical intelligence to quantified indicators within studies testing 1779 predictive United States policy enactments across 18 years. Enactments which indicate that US public policy is administered not by the influence of democratic concepts and republic will; rather by the powerful influence of an oligarchy of elitists and special interests. As you will see below, in the paper (Gilens, Page, Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens; April 9 2014), special interest groups have a combined 5x greater influence on public policy than does the citizenry at large.¹ That influence is 5 times greater than ALL of us combined, not simply one individual’s will. Add to this the net effect of a small group of elites, who in reality act in concert with these same special interest groups and you see the model in play, which is not only employed by Social Skepticism to control scientific outcomes, but is also enacted by their oligopoly partners and they themselves, inside the determination of Public Policy.
As might be ascertained from the graph on the right, I contend that the “Business interest groups” can be regarded as moot, by a fortiori relationship, since every advocacy on the part of an elite or a special interest group, will ultimately express itself inside an inflating industry or business group. This intelligence signal is dependent and redundant. So the core constituencies of the principle related in the graph are in their essence, the elites and the special interests. I contend as well, that the two work in a symbiotic, non-conspiratorial, axis of control and pathological opportunism. Activities from which we all suffer inflation and economic decline.
The Resurrection of Socialist Oligarchy
As you can see in the graphic to the right,² it has not been since the heyday of the Bolsheviks and the rise of National Socialism that we have seen so much wealth aggregated into the hands of so few. Notice a key indicator in the graphic to the right, provided by The Economist on November 8, 2014 – that the aggregation of wealth into few hands, preceded our last greatest economic depression. WWII as much as anything in this graphic, served to break the chains clasped around Europe by elitists and socialists, who are the same thing – freeing us for 70 years of economic justice, which ends basically during our current period.
And what are those specific oligopoly special interests of which we speak? Aggregated from the 1779 policy enactments, and provided in the Gilens/Page Study (see list at bottom compared to Bloomberg Visual Data release to the right of that list, below as well, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-18/college-tuition-costs-soar-chart-of-the-day.html):
Big Agriculture***
Healthcare/Insurance***
Utilities***
Pharmaceuticals***
Social Skepticism/Media
Unions/Government Employees
Education/Academia***
Tobacco/Firearms/Religions
*** It is no coincidence that Mike Burnick at Banyan Partners, LLC (http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/inflation-on-the-rise-five-sectors-set-to-rise-44308) cites these five sectors as those with the most dominant rates of inflation in our economy. Compare this to the inflating industry vertical graphic below, posted beside the Gilens/Page Study listing of oligarch institutions. This is no coincidence. This conforms with something I have observed in my company’s work with nation after nation globally:³
Corruption Produces Inflation and Suffering
From the Gilens/Page Study itself (Martin Gilens, Princeton University, Benjamin I. Page, Northwestern University, Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens; April 9 2014):
These results suggest that reality is best captured by mixed theories in which both individual economic elites and organized interest groups (including corporations, largely owned and controlled by wealthy elites) play a substantial part in affecting public policy, but the general public has little or no independent influence.
Similarly, organized interest groups (all taken together, for now) are found to have substantial independent influence on policy. Again, the predictions of pure theories of interest group pluralism are not wholly upheld, since organized interest groups must share influence with economically elite individuals. But interest group alignments are estimated to have a large, positive, highly significant impact upon public policy. (Gilens, Page, p. 16).
Special Interest Groups
American Council of Life Insurance Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers
American Farm Bureau Federation Recording Industry Association
American Hospital Association Securities and investment companies
American Medical Association Telephone companies
Association of Trial Lawyers Tobacco companies
Computer software and hardware Mass-based groups
Credit Union National Association AFL-CIO
Electric companies American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
Health Insurance Association Christian Coalition
Independent Insurance Agents of America International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Motion Picture Association of America United Auto Workers union
National Association of Broadcasters National Education Association (includes a mass base
Oil Companies of teachers but also university professors)
¹ Martin Gilens, Princeton University, Benjamin I. Page, Northwestern University, Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens; April 9 2014.
² Emanuel Saez, Gabriel Zucman, The Economist Preview; NBER Working Paper No. 20625, Nov 9 2014.
³ Mike Burnick at Banyan Partners, LLC (http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/inflation-on-the-rise-five-sectors-set-to-rise-44308.