PLUTOCRACY "The rule of wealth or of the wealthy"

 A government or state in which the wealthy class rules.Article by Clive Hamilton(National Times)14/6/2010

SO HERE'S the situation. A small group of obscenely rich people are acting in concert to bring down an elected government that wants to tax super profits. They want to install a new government sympathetic to their interests.

The war over the government's proposed tax on the super profits of mining companies is revealing the ugly truth of Australia's modern parliamentary system. It is not so much the $100 million war chest and the ruthless exercise of power by the mining companies that is shocking, but the attitude of outraged entitlement they project.

The mining industry has always believed it should receive special treatment, but the boom of recent years has seen its assumption of a privileged place reach sublime levels. Having governments fawn over them has inflated the egos of the magnates to the point where the normal constraints of propriety no longer prevent them from saying in public what they say to each other in private.

One of the most telling vignettes in this sordid debate was Andrew Forrest's expression of wounded bewilderment that the Prime Minister and the Treasurer no longer return his calls. Well, they won't return my calls either.

It's the sense of entitlement of the militant rich that sticks in the average craw. Yet in Australia today, mining billionaires expect that they only need to pick up the phone to get our most senior politicians to jump. So accustomed are the mining magnates to getting their own way that they are genuinely dismayed when the government, deciding for once to represent the collective interest, acts against the miners' commercial interests.

Editors Contribution: S.W.T.Read


The description by Clive Hamilton is very accurate and the stupid voters are being led by the nose by Abbott and the miners to the slaughter house, or should I say being led away from democracy.

The rule by people for the people seems not to count if you are a disciple of Abbott or the despicably greedy miners.

When this destruction of this government is complete, it is only then that Tony Abbott will realise that he now has sold his soul, it now belongs to the miners lock stock and barrel.

Can you imagine the celebrations they will have, knowing full well that they now control the country. Not that this will be new to them, they already control quite a few around the world.

I wonder will Tony be allowed to choose his own cabinet or will they........???