Dialogues, by Jerry Brown: on Corporations

Jerry Brown: Shameful growth of inequality in America is continuing

Now Reich might have said, "This is a horrible thing. It's a scandal. The President's doing nothing; the Congress is doing nothing. I quit." Instead, he explains that the President is on the right track and he'd be doing even better if Gingrich wasn't in the way. But it's there if you read it. The shameful growth of inequality in America is continuing.

Noam Chomsky: Since 1700s, grasping businessmen overwhelmed US government

By 1792, Madison condemned what he called the "daring depravity" of the time. He was pre-capitalist. He thought that a class of enlightened aristocrats would develop, but it turned out to be a class of grasping businessmen, who, as he put it, were becoming "the tools and tyrants" of government. They were "overwhelming" the government with their power, and they were being "bribed" by it as well. Tools and tyrants. Madison didn't like that. And in fact, that is a pretty good picture of what is going on in Washington right now.

Noam Chomsky: Most believe government is run for the special interests

These wealthy sectors also want to move the power to make decisions into hands that are invisible and unaccountable to the public.

Inequality is getting pretty close to the level of the 1920s, right before the stock market crash. Democratic forms are functioning less and less well, and what's more, the population knows it. Over 80% of the population now says, in polls, that the government is run for the few and for the special interests, not for the people. That figure used to run a steady 50% for many years. It's just shot up to over 80%, revealing a tremendous alienation and cynicism.