Power And Oppression Ehrenreich Analysis

Power and Exploitation: Abuse by the Wealthy Are CEOs paid too much? Do the wealthy have unfair power? To put it bluntly, yes. CEOs make ridiculous amounts of money. So much, in fact, that many people have a hard time understanding how much they really have. Some rich people could not spend all their money even if they tried. Meanwhile, working class laborers slave over 9-5 jobs just to be paid an incredibly small fraction of a CEOs wage. Furthermore, with money comes power. Wealthy people have unfair power and influence. Politics are arguably ran by wealthy people. In an article by Barbara Ehrenreich, she talks about problems that arise for working class citizens because of the one-percenters. Ehrenreich brings up two interesting points:

First, for every $600 toothpick and thousand-dollar meal a top CEO buys, there are thousands of workers being who are indirectly paying for it. Every penny a corporate businessman owns was made off the labor of all his workers. Many corporations will do all they can to minimize worker salaries and benefits, while maximizing their top executive wages. Furthermore, she argues financial companies will charge ridiculous fees to those who already can’t pay their bills, just for more money in their own pockets. Also, the 1% will frequently inflate prices of products and services that regular people need, such as housing and college tuitions. Finally, she claims that politics is also dominated by the wealthy; rich businessmen and corporations can use their wealth to influence the decisions of political

A successful campaign is key to winning an election. However, a political campaign requires lots of money, and for many candidates, most of that money comes from anonymous corporations. Since 2010, these corporations and individuals (known as Super Pacs) have been granted the ability to donate an infinite amount. In a 2012 article by Gary Young, he said, “The only real restriction is that there should be no co-ordination between candidates and the Super Pac. In practice, this is little more than a fig leaf.” These Super Pacs can seriously change the outcome of an election. Young also stated, “Two months ago Gingrich's surge in Iowa was halted after Romney's Super Pac ploughed millions of dollars into campaign ads attacking him.” Effective advertising can turn the tides of an election, and with companies backing candidates with infinite amounts of money, the little guy has little chance of winning