The Power Elite Summary

In the United States, public policy is shaped by multiple factors, from average citizens voices in elections to interest groups and organizations. In their study, “Testing theories of American politics”, scholars Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens explore the impact of average citizens, the economic elite and interest groups have on the passage of public policy. Additionally through their, Page and Gilens(2014) have found “that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence” (Pg 535). This means that when it comes to the creation of public policies, rich people and groups

They don’t have as much power at the upper-middle class has in their occupation because lower middle class have to possible answer to someone with little power. It is a collection of occupational categories consisting mainly of small business owners and white color workers, including middle-level managers in the business world, paraprofessional (e.g., nurses and legal workers), middle-level government bureaucrats, non-retail sales workers, secretaries, and clerks, and medical technicians (Marger 117). The U.S. population is experiencing false consciousness regarding their place in the Six Part model of the American Class System due to their lack of class awareness and denial of class

As citizens of the United States of America we must pay taxes to the government. The government takes these taxes and distributes them among different areas to fund each are; one of the highest percentages of spending goes to defense. The whopping amount of around 610 billion dollars makes the United States’ military the largest in the world, so large that its funding out-weighs the next seven highest spending countries. The problem with this is that the military does not really solve the large amount of very important domestic affairs; in fact we barely see the fruits of it. There are many reasons why we should cut down on the percentage spent on defense and focus more on other areas.

During the past couple of decades, the decline in the middle class has been associated to the political agenda of the Republican Party. By ending governmental subsidies and other programs created to build the middle class, has ultimately ceased the growth. However, realizing the importance of the middle class to our fragile economic platform, the Democratic and Independent political parties are desperately trying to create and revamp the middle class

The structure of our government is complex. With local, state, and federal levels of government, it can be confusing to understand how the government works. Luckily, Morris Fiorina wrote a document about the structure of the government called The Rise of the Washington Establishment. The Washington establishment simply refers to big government workers such as, included but not limited to, house representatives, senators, congressmen, and party leaders. These legislators and bureaucrats are the ones who run the government and establish laws. In his document, Fiorina argued that these people are in office only for personal gains. He strongly focused on congress, in which he believes they act in favor of their reelection. Power, money, and insurance benefits are the main influences that motivate congressmen to hold their position. Governmental representatives are supposed to reflect the values of the people, but they ultimately act in a selfish manor. The Rise of the Washington Establishment analyzes how congressmen act for their own self-interest.

It can be said that money is power in the United States, and this is brought out in the essay, “Class in America---2012” written by Gregory Mantsios. He says that even though many Americans do not like to discuss class, “it can determine where people live, who their friends are, how well they are educated, and what they do for a living” (Mantsios). Many Americans do not speak about class type, and most find it unacceptable (Mantsios). Unfortunately, we can see that there are laws that are built to help and better the wealthy, while it cripples the rest of us. According to the Economic Policy Institute, “The richest twenty percent of Americans hold nearly ninety percent of the total household wealth in this county” (Institute) Gregory Mantsios without reserve describes the majority of people are at a disadvantage in their social class, while the upper class is compensated.

The military was founded in 1775 in order to fight Great Britain. The small army was led by appointed commander George Washington. Ever since its establishment, the military has continued to increase. The United States currently has about 1.3 million active troops and an additional 865,000 troops in reserve - it is the world’s third largest military. The US also has a large global presence with troops deployed in over 170 countries including South Korea, Italy, Afghanistan, and Japan.

There are many of us who are disillusioned by the American Political system, over the years we have become increasingly cynical, viewing politicians as extensions of Corporate America, the good OLE boys from the South and the Eastern Elite. For such politicians, politics itself was a life long destiny, full of ambition, finesse, and struggle for power, yet a severe lack

Publisher, Richard V. Reeves, in his online article, "The Dangerous Separation of the American Upper Middle Class," shares how income, education, and political power have caused a split in the upper middle class. Reeves's purpose is to convey the idea that the upper middle class has shifted from being a sociological curiosity to an economic and political problem. Reeves outlines how the upper middle class that was once considered an accessible hope or American dream, is now a blockade and an obstacle for others. He adopts a rational and analytical tone to appeal to the reader's sense of reason. Reeves cites convincing facts and statistics as well as successfully uses emotional appeals. However, toward the end of the article his attempts to appeal to reader's emotions, weakens the credibility and ultimately his argument.

Publisher, Richard V. Reeves, in his online article, "The Dangerous Separation of the American Upper Middle Class," shares how income, education, and political power has caused a split in the upper middle class. Reeves 's purpose is to convey the idea that the upper middle class has shifted from being a sociological curiosity to an economic and political problem. Reeves outlines how the upper middle class that was once considered an accessible hope or American dream, is now a blockade and an obstacle for others. He adopts a rational and analytical tone to appeal to the reader 's sense of reason. Reeves cites convincing facts and

Due to the need for campaign funds by both the Democratic and Republican party, representatives and party leaders are easily influenced by the alluring presence of money presented by the wealthy. Consequently, in terms of economic position, laws and policies tend to favor the privileged rather than the overall majority. For instance, beginning in the 1970s, corporate America started to invest more money and focus into politics. A large amount of corporate spending is on lobbying. In contrast, most Americans don’t have an organization to lobby for them. This being so, because the wealthy have more lobbying clout, the government tends to pay closer attention to the concerns of the very privileged.

After reading American Government on page 397 it says, “revolving door laws, laws that require a cooling-off period before government officials can register to lobby after leaving office” which means leaving a government job for a cooperation job. The problem of the Lobbying Revolving Door is that gives corporation unfair advantage like cheating the system like if someone changes from a corporation to government and that person could create a law to help that company for example reading the CNN video “Jo Ann Emerson took his seat in Congress. During her nine terms in office after her husband died.” The lobbying revolving door laws been ineffective because anyone that can change jobs they can change the laws. A solution is to create to institute

British Prime Minister Edward Heath once described as the “ugly face” of organizational life. Whether by design or by default, organizations often have a large negative impact on our world (Morgan, G. 2006. Pg.293). The chapter continues to discuss Sociologist Robert Michels theory, which I feel best applies to this article, where he says “Organizations end up being ruled by the few, and Leaders become preoccupied with power (Morgan, G. 2006. Pg.296). In the case of Republicans representing the House majority, there is a clear role of domination and their use of power to elect Betsy DeVos. Understanding this applies to whichever party holds the majority rule, even democratically elected leaders with the best intentions have a tendency to become a part of the elite furthering their own interest and to hang on to their power at all costs (Morgan, G. 2006.

That top portion manipulates the facts because they want the rest of America to believe that there is little inequality in the society. This causes a massive misunderstanding by the majority of the population where they underestimate the adverse economic effects of inequality and overestimate of the cost of taking action. There are also many misconceptions concerning the government which include the overestimate the ability of government to fix their inequality problems and the failure to understand what the government is doing to fix society’s problems. Despite the seemingly obvious facts, “only 42 percent of Americans believe that inequality has increased in the past ten years,” (Stiglitz 185) this believe is due to the optimism when it comes to social mobility, most Americans believe that there is a way to “cheat” or overcome the inequality. This idea that hope is necessary for a society to be controlled is consistent throughout a lot of governments and even literary works as well. In Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy the dictator like President Snow makes a point to say that hope is the only thing stronger than fear. This is true in society today, it is easier to rule and control people who think that things will get better

The era of volatility has created a shift from America being the middle-class society to simply rich or poor (Sachs, 2011). A gap this large has not been experienced since the 1920’s (Sachs). “The top 1% of households takes almost a quarter of all household income” but an economy this top heavy will not be able to succeed (Sachs, 2011, p. 30). The working classes are struggling with housing, wage, and employment issues. Rich individuals are ignoring these troubles, shipping their business operations out of the country, thus furthering the downward spiral of the economy (Sachs). To make matters worse, this has become in a large part a political issue, because the rich can influence candidates with funding, where the poor and working