It is an old adage “Guy with the Gold makes the Golden rule” 

The just concluded US mid -term election was the costliest (estimate around $16 billion, may be more) in US history so far and it is predicted that the spending will remain on an upward trajectory and no one knows how high it will go and when.

A few years ago, Oxfam reported that just eight of the richest people on earth own as much combined wealth as bottom half of the human race. This insane concentration of wealth with a few individuals is the globalized modern world today. This is very scary.

Money is really power and it affects the lives of all of us practically in each and every sphere of our lives. Greeks called it plutocracy or plutarchy which means a society that is ruled or controlled by people of great wealth or income. These few people with their Gold, make the Golden Rule for all of us.

Remember that in 2011, there was an Occupy Wall Street Movement here in US by the common people. It was a protest movement against economic inequality, wealth inequality and political corruption and the influence of money in politics. The first Occupy protest to receive widespread attention began in Lower Manhattan and spread to over 951 cities across 82 countries, and in over 600 communities in the United States. But the truth is that it is Wall Street that occupies all of us. 

A few years ago, US Supreme Court allowed that individuals and corporations can spend any amount of money in the elections by establishing PAC (Political Action Committees) and Super PACS. 

In the just concluded US election, many rich and super rich people thru their Super PACs affected the election process significantly.  The big money played a big role. 

In the election cycle the money from the super-rich was spent to buy Ads on TV, Radio, Print and social media in support of their causes and candidates. 

Nearly all candidates blamed and demonized their opponents and depicted him/her as sources of all evils and problems.  Personal attacks, innuendoes, distortions and exaggerations was the only talk on all airwaves, social and print media and our mail boxes.  Unfounded lies were fabricated and then widely disseminated and promoted.  To the best of my knowledge, there was no civility, ethics and morality to be seen. Candidates talked and touted about their religious affiliations and family values but it was purely talk and no walk.

Large sums of money were spent in polarizing and divisive politics. In such an atmosphere, the very institutions of democracy came under attack.

Instead, the candidates should have been talking about their vision, how they differ from the vision of their opponent, about economic policy, major social programs, civil liberties, how to keep us safe from many epidemics, civil liberties, health of the planet and environments, reproductive rights, job creation, how to make this world more peaceful and hundreds of other issues affecting all of us but they were just busy in innuendos and character assassinations of their opponent. 

In all this, big money (the Gold) played a major and pivotal role. 

When an element within the nation seeks its own power and its own way over and above any other factor, that element should be confronted or everything else might be lost. 

Several years ago, President Lincoln said “a government by the people, of the people and for the people will not perish”.  Now just think and reflect, a “government by a few rich, of a few rich and for a few rich” is a democracy or what several hundred years ago Creeks called “plutarchy” and for how long will it survive? You decide! 

Dr. Sulekh C. Jain lives in Henderson, NV and is the cofounder of International School for Jain Studies. Previously, he served as President of the Federation of Jain Associations in North America (JAINA). He can be reached at scjainphd@gmail.com

Dr. Jain also authored the book An Ahimsa Crisis: You Decide, which can be accessed free at www.isjs.in

The view, opinion, and commentary expressed above is that of the author Dr. Sulekh Jain, Ph.D. www.vegasdesi.com is not responsible for its contents.