The Elite
Andre Willers
27 Sep 2014
Synopsis :
Who are the elite and what do they want ? They are the top
5% and they want it all .
Discussion :
1.Definition :
“In political and sociological theory, an elite is a small group of
people who control a disproportionate
amount of wealth or political power. In general, elite means the more capable group of people.
The selected part of a group that is superior to the rest in terms of ability
or qualities.”
2.Historical Elites
This varied between 1% to 5% , with large
uncertainties .
Eg French Revolution : Elite (Clergy +
Aristocracy = 480 000 out of 27 million gives 1.7%)
Roman Empire : Roman citizens in the early
Empire were about 2% of total population .
Communist Party varied 1%-3 %
Nazi party 3%-5%
3. Empirical study on 1779 US cases in 2014
with elite being top 10% economic .
Testing Theories of American Politics:
Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens
By
Martin Gilens ,Princeton University , mgilens@princeton.edu
Benjamin I. Page ,Northwestern University , b-page@northwestern.edu
April 2014
Findings :
“In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority
does not rule -- at least not in the causal sense of actually
determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens
disagrees with economic elites and/or
with organized interests, they generally lose. “
“ our analyses suggest that majorities of the American
public actually
have little influence over the policies our government
adopts.”
See the document at
4.Theory
A NASA study
See the actual study at
and a simplified version at
They both see the present world economy as having an Elite
of 3% for centuries , but which is now spinning out of control .
5.If billionaires did not exist , it would be necessary to invent
them .
A form of capital concentration . An effect of Power Laws that
operate in systems with complex feedback processes (like economics). There will
always be someone who strikes lucky , then plays it smart and soon grabs all he
can . See http://tuvalu.santafe.edu/~jdf/papers/powerlaw3.pdf
These capital concentrations form a vital part in the long-term
health of an economy . Basic, blue-sky research , for instance .
6.Billionaires are no
threat .
They do not seem to
represent a threat to a vigilant population . They are merely the top , visible
part of the Elite , who can be a major threat .
Elites have historically
been about 5% of population . In US in 2010 5% owned 72% . Seehttp://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World's_Billionaires
: 1645 in 2014
Elite 5% of 7 Bn = 350
million . in US , about 1.5 million with income over $232 000 pa .
No meaningful change is
possible unless this class is suborned .
7.Do not watch the
billionaires’ social calendar .
Watch the personal
assistants of their executives. They go where the elites are .
Better than yours
Andre
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