The US, Will it Become a Banana Republic?
| A banana republic is also characterized by a ruling class that curtails people’s personal freedoms and is moving towards a heavy-handed military dictatorship under the excuse of fighting guerrilla (or terrorist) opposition groups or enemies. Moreover, the fact that the ruling class or the elite comes from different political parties isn’t a relevant factor in classifying a country as a banana republic; what is relevant is the determination of the elite, irrespective of which party its members belong to, to shift wealth from the majority of the people (the masses) to themselves, usually through simply printing money and incurring chronic budget deficits, and frequently also through senseless warfare. |  |
The third good news is that although there are ominous signs of the US drifting towards the status of a banana republic, the polarization of wealth isn’t due only to appreciating asset values, inheritances, and the disproportionate growth of the financial sector compared to the rest of the economy. The five richest Americans all made their money themselves, and while money managers, real estate moguls (including hotel and casino owners), and leverage buyout artists are very predominant on the Forbes list of the 400 richest people in America, there are also a large number of “new economy” entrepreneurs on the list, such as the founders of Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, and Google.
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