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I'm so tired of the apologists for oligarchy, the pretenders to plutocracy. The working people have been so effectively broken by the promise of "some day," and "if you just work hard enough," and and and.... It seems that the stinging epithets that do the most damage are reserved for those of us who WORK for a living. Who are the truly "entitled"? The truly entitled are those whose billions in offshore accounts, who hide their wealth from the tax man because, after all, "only the little people pay taxes."

There's an article on Salon today (http://www.salon.com/2013/03/25/defeating_useless_rich_people/) about the threat from the "rentier" class to our economy and to the millions of unemployed and underemployed (or over-employed, as in working two or three low-wage jobs where one decent-wage job should be). In it, Michael Lind expressed his observations about this economic threat, and made his suggestions for combatting it.

"Today America’s powerful rentier interests, particularly those in the FIRE (finance, insurance and real estate) sector, are mobilizing campaign contributions and paid propaganda to promote what I called the Rentier Agenda: low taxes on those whose income is derived from capital gains; the privatization of public infrastructure and the deregulation of regulated private utilities, to generate windfall profits for investors in privatized or deregulated agencies; and a macroeconomic policy that serves the interests of creditors, at the expense of slow growth and mass unemployment, rather than productive businesses and workers. Similar observations have been made by many on the left and some mavericks on the right." 

As soon as the article by author Michael Lind was posted to Facebook, out came the apologists for the powerful:

"...Spoken like a true Bolshevik. Maybe if the workers OWN the ideas, the patents, the means of production, they can talk about 'entitlement.'"

So...what I want to know is: Where are the terms that stick to the uber rich like "Bolshevik" sticks to those who struggle against the obscene accumulation of wealth? People who use "Bolshevik" as a pejorative always amaze me. Yes, there are some individuals who had an idea, made it into a fortune, and "prove" the "great american dream" theory. However, there are millions whose "great american dream" was crushed by the oligarchs who don't play well with more than a handful of people (mostly men) who think and act just like them. And it is true that that bazillionaire's IDEA depended on the actual LABOR of many other WORKERS. And that that bazillionaire makes even MORE $$$$ by moving his jobs to countries where slave labor exists and where environmental protections do not. Where are the words for the predatory class that conjure up the fear and revulsion that "Bolshevik" does?????