Plutocracy USA

UNDERGROUND
Gentry writers debate what kind of tip to leave overworked waiters and waitresses. Underground writers ARE those waiters and waitresses.

BLOOMBERG
Rumor is that at the Bloomberg company, 10% of the work force is fired each year to maintain a state of employee subservience and fear.

THE INDEPENDENT PLUTOCRAT
Now we hear that billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who bought for himself the mayoralty of New York City, is now looking to buy the political world's biggest job.

This is like the last days of the Roman Republic, when plutocrats named Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar bought political and military power.

The process, incidentally, is happening throughout the lit world also. New Money billionaires move into entities like the Poetry Foundation and some small press organizations, proclaiming themselves, ridiculously enough, "populists," while Old Money icons living in enclaves like Fisher's Island fight to hang on to their own substantial slice of the literary plutocracy pie.

WE THE PEOPLE CAN SPEAK FOR OURSELVES
Meanwhile, Presidential candidate John Edwards gives highly-paid speeches in front of affluent crowds during which he bemoans the widening gap between rich and poor in this society. Edwards is worth $30 million. He must be speaking about the gap between Michael Bloomberg and himself.