'Wealth Defense Industry' Protects 1% From the Rabble and Its Taxes

[Flaylo]

Dan Froomkin: 'Wealth Defense Industry' Protects 1% From the Rabble and Its Taxes

Occupy protesters are putting their bodies on the line day and night -- leaving their homes, living in tents, braving the elements, and being treated as criminals by the police.

But the super-rich whose influence they are protesting have others to do their fighting for them.


"Oligarchs can go about their business as literally thousands of fulltime professionals work for their interests," says Northwestern University political economist Jeffrey Winters, author of the 2011 book Oligarchy.

Winters coined the term "wealth defense industry" to describe this veritable army that serves the super-rich, and in a recent article in the American Interest he explained that it "is comprised of lawyers, accountants, wealth management consultants, revolving-door lobbyists, think-tank debate framers and even key segments of the insurance industry whose sole purpose is income defense for America’s oligarchs. "

It's "a multi-billion dollar industry per year, and it feeds completely on the need of wealthy people to defend their wealth," Winters says in an interview.

The paramount goal is simple and specific: "To not pay taxes and to keep as much of their fortunes as they possibly can across generations."

The OP speaks for itself.