Originally Posted by
Natural Lefty
You said that wealth has little to do with political alignment, which clearly implies that you thought that is what I meant. That is not what I meant, however. People of any political persuasion can take advantage of the system we have that encourages ever increasing wealth disparities. This system has been driven in recent decades by the forces that I mentioned. You may disagree with that, but the fact is, I agree that wealth itself has little to do with political alignment, although the billionaire class are mostly drawn to the Republican Party due to its explicit emphasis on furthering the conditions leading to massive wealth for a few individuals as opposed to a fairer economic environment.
You are correct that capitalism and greed go way back in history. However, the United States has added elements which are resulting in one of the world's highest levels of income inequality (again, easily verified online).
You then linked wealth to intelligence. There is a correlation between income and intelligence, but very little between accumulated wealth and intelligence. That is because over time, this has become a class society, in which most wealth is inherited, and apparently smart people who have risen up the economic ladder often have not so smart kids. It has a lot more to do with who your parents are, than with intelligence. Another caveat is that a lot of very intelligent people know that "money isn't everything." In fact, money isn't much at all except for what society makes of it, so a lot of well educated people such as myself are not into chasing after money.
By the way, do you think Trump got to where he did through intelligence or hard work? I certainly don't. He was a spoiled, but unloved, rich kid from the start who turned into a major conman and big time liar.
Yes, the history that we are told about the United States "whitewashes" the reality of racial inequality, intolerance and economic injustice. I agree with that. And guess which side of the political spectrum has been leading the way throughout history to racism, intolerance, and economic injustice? That would be conservatism, whatever the party or label might have been at the time for it. Conservatives continue to have an unholy alliance of different factions to advance their cause in the current era.
By the way, the word is "accepted," not "excepted." Excepted means to make an exception of something. Accepted means to agree on something as true or at least tolerable.