Time Magazine: How the Elites Lost Their Grip

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1. LisaM says:

   December 2, 2019 at 2:22 pm

   Good God! I hope he’s right. My fear is that we’ve already gone too far down the rabbit hole to save ourselves.

   Reply
2. retired teacher says:

   December 2, 2019 at 2:43 pm

   People are tired seeing the 1% and corporations run the government. The hyper-capitalism, Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy, the lack of good paying jobs, access to affordable health care and the arrogant attitude and manipulations of the powerful have turned many people off. It is driving many more people to become more progressive. People understand that the system is rigged to benefit the wealthy. The status quo only benefits the wealthy, and it is time for a change. Robert Reich has said that the big divide is not liberal against conservative. It is the wealthy against everyone else. We need to reclaim our democracy before it’s too late.

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3. Daedalus says:

   December 2, 2019 at 2:58 pm

   Thanks, Dianne.

   I can’t believe that this came from an editor at Time. It boggles the mind, and offers just a smidgen of hope (as does your own ‘conversion’, Thank you so much).

   Perhaps people in the United States are beginning to understand the stakes. Are we actually a people’s republic, or are we a banana republic?

   Reply
   • Linda says:

     December 2, 2019 at 7:44 pm

     A couple of decades ago, Time wasn’t right wing. I canceled a subscription I had had for twenty years when the magazine became Republican. Time’s anti-teacher teacher and pension coverage broke the camel’s back.

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   • Duane E Swacker says:

     December 3, 2019 at 2:15 pm

     Banana!

     Reply
4. SomeDAM Poet says:

   December 2, 2019 at 4:05 pm

   Anyone who actually believes that is delusional.

   Reply
   • GregB says:

     December 2, 2019 at 5:11 pm

     As much as I don’t want to, I agree.

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   • SomeDAM Poet says:

     December 2, 2019 at 7:43 pm

     Anand Giriharadas lost his grip on reality in 2019.

     Reply
     • Linda says:

       December 2, 2019 at 7:46 pm

       Recently Anand was interviewed on PBS. He singled out charter schools as an example of the way rich spend their money harming society.

     • SomeDAM Poet says:

       December 2, 2019 at 7:55 pm

       I refer specifically to his claim that the elite lost their grip in 2019.

       That is simply not a rational claim.

   • LeftCoastTeacher says:

     December 2, 2019 at 8:13 pm

     You have to know how much I greatly respect you and your opinions, but I have to disagree that nothing will change. 2019 began for me with going on strike. I cannot describe the power of it in the limited time I have. The effects of the strike are evident in Los Angeles as 2019 comes to a close. It’s difficult to be cynical after what I saw. There will be change. It will take decades of time and solidarity, but the neoliberal order will be greatly diminished by progressive reform. (Can we have the word ‘reform’ back now?) I intend to be on the front line of the struggle. We will win because we must.

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     • SomeDAM Poet says:

       December 2, 2019 at 8:24 pm

       I didn’t say nothing will change, nor do I believe that.

       I just think it is very unhelpful for people like Girihardas to make claims that are not supported by evidence, particulatrly when it might make people celebrate too early.

       If anything, the fact that a small number of billionaires control a higher percentage of the total wealth each year is an indication that their grip is tightening, not loosening.

       Also, if one looks at companies like Google and Gamebook, their influence and power over our lives is increasing, not decreasing (,or even remaining the same). Google is certainly not losing its grip.

       Anyone who would claim as much has not been paying any attention at all to what is happening.

     • SomeDAM Poet says:

       December 2, 2019 at 8:25 pm

       Self correct turned Fakebook into Gamebook

       Ha ha ha.

     • LeftCoastTeacher says:

       December 2, 2019 at 9:29 pm

       Ah, I understand now. — Their grip is definitely tightening. Bloomberg is tearing his palms with his fingernails. I’m gonna do something I ordinarily wouldn’t do unless to say Use the OptOut Luke, and quote Star Wars. Princess Leia: “The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.”

     • Máté Wierdl says:

       December 3, 2019 at 4:22 pm

       It’s remarkable that the article says not a word about the strikes. If anything, that shows “loosening of the grip”.

5. Lloyd Lofthouse says:

   December 2, 2019 at 5:26 pm

   Anand Giriharadas probably wrote the wrong word thanks to a typo and it was supposed to be “grit”.

   Reply
6. Bob Shepherd says:

   December 2, 2019 at 6:19 pm

   Recently, there’s been a story, much in the news, that reported a Federal Reserve finding that 39 percent of Americans (the number is typically rounded up to 40 in news reports) can’t meet an unexpected expense. Of course, Bloomberg News (which should be renamed the Bloomberg Journal of Corporate Apologetics) ran an opinion piece debunking this idea. The Bloomberg piece glibly claimed that most of that 39 percent of Americans would borrow the money (from a relative or friend, on their credit cards), and so it simply isn’t the case that so many of us are a flat tire away from a personal financial crisis. The fact is that Americans are tapped out. Average nonmortgage debt is now at an all-time high of $38,000, and Americans owe a whopping 1.5 trillion dollars in student loans. At some point, people simply can’t borrow any more from anyone. All this matters because it’s times of personal financial crisis that cannot be dealt with that bring about revolutionary change. People don’t forget those. They can’t. As long as the Roman elite could ensure that the grain kept coming along the Tiber to support the bread dole, they were able to hold the Empire together. When that stopped happening, they were in trouble. In all such times throughout history, those who were relatively well off dismissed the warning signs, and those who were very well off had paid court singers to do the dismissing for them.

   If we don’t have a fundamental change in our political/economic structure, things will continue in this manner until the people turn on the rich and eat them.

   How close are we to a tipping point? I have no idea. But we’re getting there. For a long time, Americans have been kept drunk enough on entertainments to squint at Capitalism, pronounce it beautiful, and take it home to their hearts. But that’s not sustainable. We’ll either see a shift to Democratic Socialism, or we’ll see the emergence of a repressive nationalist state like Cold War-era East Germany, but with more powerful technological means for surveillance, command, and control. I’ll have the former, thank you.

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   • Bob Shepherd says:

     December 2, 2019 at 6:31 pm

     cx: can’t meet an unexpected $400 expense

     Reply
7. SomeDAM Poet says:

   December 2, 2019 at 7:50 pm

   Bear in mind that this is the very same Time Magazine that featured Michelle Rhee on the cover with a broomstick, claiming that she was going to clean up schools with her magic spells.

   It is also the same Time Magazine that featured an apple on the cover, claiming that it was “nearly impossible to get rid of a bad teacher” and that some tech millionaires (Giriharadas friends at MIT Media Lab?) had a solution to that “problem”

   Ha ha ha .

   Reply
   • SomeDAM Poet says:

     December 2, 2019 at 7:52 pm

     Or maybe it was magic smells, or shells, or hells.

     Reply
8. Linda says:

   December 2, 2019 at 9:11 pm

   A loss for Betsy in Michigan- a federal judge rejected the GOP’s attempt to block new redistricting while their lawsuit to prevent it moves forward.

   Reply
   • dianeravitch says:

     December 2, 2019 at 9:27 pm

     Wonderful!

     Reply
9. wdf1 says:

   December 2, 2019 at 10:27 pm

   An interview with Anand Giriharadas, starts about 8 minutes in.

   Reply
10. wdf1 says:

    December 2, 2019 at 10:30 pm

    Reply
    • speduktr says:

      December 3, 2019 at 12:07 am

      Yes!

      Reply
11. democracy says:

    December 3, 2019 at 5:01 am

    Democracy IS worth fighting for. But the Republican Party is against it. A quock sampling of the news:

    NY Magazine noted that ” Trump fired Yovanovitch because she stood in the way of the corruption he and his allies were promoting….corruption motivated Trump’s diplomatic posture in Ukraine…he wanted to encourage more of it…”

    The Washington Post reported that “again and again, one Republican after another used up their time returning to a suite of discredited conspiracy theories about supposed Ukrainian-Democratic collusion in 2016 and floating claims about the Bidens that have been completely debunked…”

    And, The Post reported that “David Holmes’ testimony directly implicates Trump in an alleged scheme at the heart of the impeachment probe, that Trump leveraged military assistance in exchange for investigations into Biden and a debunked theory concerning Ukrainian interference in the 2016 presidential election”

    More recently, Newsweek reported this:

    “operatives working for Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency broke into Democratic Party computers remotely from Moscow, stealing election plans, internal polling and voter targeting data…Robert Anderson, who worked for the FBI for 21 years, rising to oversee the bureau’s efforts to identify, track and disrupt foreign intelligence and cyberwarfare efforts—including those originating from Russia, said ‘The GRU is military intelligence. So when we look at the attacks that happened during our presidential races in 2016 you had military organizations inside of Russia attacking our infrastructure.’…American intelligence agencies, Congress and special counsel Robert Mueller have all concluded that Russia conducted a systematic campaign to influence the 2016 presidential elections…The Trump administration and GOP have repeatedly blocked reforms and funding that would fortify the U.S. system against malign outside influence.”

    https://www.newsweek.com/russias-2016-election-meddling-was-well-choreographed-military-operation-former-fbi-1473821

    U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, in a ruling against Trump’s broad claims that he cannot be held accountable by Congress, said this:

    “The primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded American history is that Presidents are not kings. This means that they do not have subjects, bound by loyalty or blood, whose destiny they are entitled to control. Rather, in this land of liberty, it is indisputable that current and former employees of the White House work for the People of the United States, and that they take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

    As Frank Rich (NY Magazine) put it:

    “If the Republicans cared about the facts or the gravity of the crime being investigated, the answer would be apocalyptically damaging. But they don’t care…they will continue to defend Trump even if those testifying under oath include an eyewitness to a criminal conspiracy hatched in the White House like Sondland, or patriots like Fiona Hill, Alexander Vindman, and Marie Yovanovitch, who not only provided irrefutable evidence of the crime but detailed the existential threat that crime poses to America…Trump and his co-conspirators, including the vice-president and secretary of State, were guilty of aiding Vladimir Putin’s plan to bludgeon Ukraine, an American ally and to weaken our country as well…Putin’s foremost goal is to sabotage the electoral process that is the beating heart of our democracy…”

    Cyber-warfare. Spreading Russian propaganda. Criminal conspiracy.

    The entirety of the Republican Part is at war with the Constitution and the Republic, and the Constitution has something to say about it:

    Article III, Section 3, U.S. Constitution:

    “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.”

    Let’s call them out for what they are.

    Reply
    • Bob Shepherd says:

      December 3, 2019 at 8:56 am

      Exactly. Call it what it is: treason.

      Reply
12. Laura H. Chapman says:

    December 3, 2019 at 2:26 pm

    The time article refers to the Business Roundtable’s effort to redefine the purpose of a corporation. I think the Business Roundtable’s redefinition is not more than an attempt to claim corporate values are American values and above criticism because corporations are not just seeking profits for stockholders.

    The website for the Business Roundtable has a statement on “The Purpose of a Corporation” with the signatures of 181 CEOs or senior corporate officials. This brief statement appears to have been designed as a full-page ad in newspapers. I have seen it more than once in the Wall Street Journal.

    The Business Roundtable website has the “The Purpose of a Corporation” statement and elaborates on four major realms of corporate “Leadership in Action.” Each realm is also featured in a pulldown tab that begins with commentary and illustrations of wonderful works by corporations. You can then scroll down and find more examples of good works. Some if these brief illustrations include links to corporate websites where much more detail on the program or benefit is provided.

    Here are the four realms of socially conscious practices intended to show how corporations “return value to shareholders” not just stock holders.

    Taking Care of Our Employees. This realm of activity is amplified by 52 examples of in-house health and wellness programs, recruitment for diversity and inclusion, paid leave, and other benefits.

    Investing in Our People. This realm is illustrated by 48 programs that offer incentives for workers to upgrade their skills, help them to give and receive mentoring, and efforts to recruit for diversity in the workforce including persons with disabilities.

    Building Communities, Meeting Challenges. This includes 119 examples of employee and corporate contributions to disaster relief and local philanthropic work, programs of recycling and waste reduction, and customers incentive plans (such as buy more product with a percentage goes to good works).

    Preparing Tomorrow’s Innovators. This realm of activity has a strong focus on education. I analyzed these example in greater detail that the other three realms of “corporate leadership.” There are 102 programs from 58 corporations.

    Some programs have a seamless integration of branding and learning. For example, Oracle has a “Design Tech” public high school on its corporate campus. This is complemented by Oracle Academy which offers high school computer science classes and “a complete portfolio of software, curriculum, hosted technology, faculty training, support, and certification resources to K-12.”

    IBM provides a curriculum and instruction for an associate degree in technology with some help from Stanley Black & Decker. Dell has a computer science curriculum. Siemens has a STEM curriculum with a LEGO component and professional training for the use of LEGO K-8. Texas Instruments supports STEM education K-12 through grants.

    In fac, more than 60 corporate programs support varieties of technology use, computer coding, and digital learning with STEM and STEAM embraced in almost half of them. About half of these programs were also aimed at training students for the workforce, but only one through an apprenticeship. Only two corporations featured college scholarships.

    Several corporations were operating programs in “partnerships” with school districts. A $1 million donation from International Paper is helping recruit and train new teachers in Memphis schools.
    American Airlines launched a “partnership” with W.H. Adamson High School in Dallas to help create IT career tracks for high school students. More than a dozen American Airlines team members moved their offices to the school. See for yourself at https://opportunity.businessroundtable.org/preparing-tomorrows-innovators/

    I am underwhelmed by the Business Roundtable campaign. It strikes me as a new story line for business as usual.

    For better perspectives on corporate work in education, I recommend this brief 2019 publication: Examining The New Phenomenon Of Teachers As Brand Ambassadors https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED593277.pdf

    I also recomment several blog post by Mercedes Schneider on the capture of school administrators in the corporate marketing schemeknown as ERDI “Education Research & Development Institute.”ERDI offers plenty of payola to school administrators, especially superintendents, for allowing corporations to shape policy, product choices, and more. https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/?s=ERDI

    The Business Roundtable effort to claim social responsibility took a hit today in the Wall Street Journal (12/3/2019, A15). Two scholars of business and economics, Aneesh Raghunandan and Shiva Rajgopal, mustered data in support of their answer to this headline: “Is There Real Virtue Behind the Business Roundtable Signaling?”

    The takedown of “virtue” among the 181 signatory companies comes from performance comparisons with peer companies, all based on well-known databases in corporate circles. Here are the key points.

    The 181 signatory firms (181SF) had higher rates of violations of EPA and OSHA regulations than a comparison groups.

    The 181SF bought back a larger proportion of their shares than other companies, a practice that progressives (e.g., Bernie Sanders) see “as a major source of income and wealth inequality, subpar capital spending, and lackluster productivity.”

    The 181SF enjoy sales and market shares significantly higher on average than peer firms. The researchers note that renewed interest in antitrust law may be a good reason for the 181SF to portray themselves as benevolent.

    Finally, the CEO compensation for the 181SF in relation to stock returns is, on average 4% higher than for peers.

    In other words, the Business Roundtable’s efforts at “modernizing principles on the role of a corporation” are being met with skepticism and DATA.

    Reply
    • Linda says:

      December 4, 2019 at 9:12 am

      Roundtable, as in Philanthropy Roundtable, means two-tiered table with the top tier of the richest 0.1% far distant from the bottom tier who are those toiling for the bread that the wealthy eat.

      Reply
13. Abby says:

    December 3, 2019 at 6:39 pm

    The 1 percent elites are indeed under pressure, but from the elite professionals who make up the top 30 percent. They understand that they are in a very precarious situation and they are the principal supporters of Sanders and Warren for reasons listed in the excellent article below:

    https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2019/11/the-real-class-war/

    Reply
    • Linda says:

      December 4, 2019 at 10:23 am

      Thanks for the link. “…the legacy of its previous turn toward neoliberalism.”
      I want to believe the article. However, I see no evidence that the neoliberals at the Center for American Progress nor those at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, School of Education, etc. have abandoned neoliberalism. Professors receiving grants from Arnold, Gates, Waltons, etc. haven’t abandoned it nor, have the proliferating intellectual prostitutes employed by billionaire-funded think tanks.
      It’s doubtful that groups like the 5,000 CEO’s (and, their wives) who make up the Napa Institute vote Democratic.

      There’s an interesting on-line article about an issue that neoliberal and conservative women agree upon- neither want women to organize. They share that objective with the Catholic church, which has become highly political, abandoning its 50’s/60’s acceptance of pluralism and
      modernism in a retreat to theocracy.

      Reply
      • Linda says:

        December 4, 2019 at 10:38 am

        Those likely to remain neo-liberals- economists, Austan Goolsbee, Christina Romer, Laura D’Andrea Tyson and Alan Krueger. In 2016, they signed an anti-Sanders letter which listed their university credentials but, not their other affiliations like those with corporations. Neoliberals and professional ethics?

14. luke menson says:

    December 7, 2019 at 6:55 pm

    Capitalism – Profit before People

    Capitalism – Gain before Good

    Capitalism – Oligopoly over Democracy

    There is little doubt that the first world has an operating model that functions to increase the concentration of wealth held by the wealthiest few. While this wealth, in varying degrees, is often redistributed by philanthropic activities, democracy plays little part in guiding how it is spent. In general, it appears to be applied to improve the a populations well being, be this local, national or global.

    In New Zealand, Jacinda Ahdern has called capitalism “A blatant failure”. To call capitalism a failure, an alternative philosophy is required, a philosophy that is a demonstrable improvement on capitalism. Either our democratic system has failed us, or capitalism morphing to a new “post-capitalism” model is the best approach. Capitalism has been the philosophy that has dominated throughout the most rapid and profound changes in our global society, ever.

    Perhaps the question to ask is: what alterations or additions can be applied to capitalism to ensure that the welfare of people is improved?

    Consider the building blocks for a post capitalist philosophy:
    • Education quotient the highest ever and growing (knowledge/population)
    • Automated manufacturing driving production costs towards zero (initially leading to a disposable society but now understood to encompass recycling)
    • Addressable knowledge base growing
    • Access to knowledge becoming globally ubiquitous
    • A growing financial divide between the wealthiest and everyone else.
    • The possibility of a whole population having their say when required, and not just at legislated dates. (Jacinda might have had the capability of asking all of New Zealand if they agreed with her gun law changes

    Post Capitalism – Profit (more for the people that contribute to the profit)
    Post Capitalism – Gain for Good (Make illegal activity to profit from bad )
    Post Capitalism – Democracy (make it more difficult for Oligopolies to exist)
    Post Capitalism – Act where a good outcome can not be monetised

    This thinking was inspired by a recent article in the Time magazine, VOL. 194 NOS. 24-25 2019, “HOW THE ELITES LOST THEIR GRIP”

    The American https://www.businessroundtable.org/ change in focus from “The purpose of business is to make money for shareholders” to ‘the purpose of a corporation is to promote “An economy that serves all Americans”

    Reply