Wealth and Want in the United States
In Democracy for the Few, Parenti illustrates how our society is primarily divided into two categories: the "owning class" and the "working class." He explains those who are considered the "owning class," are the extremely well-to-do people; those who are independently wealthy and mostly live on profits from their investments. This class consists of wealthy stockholders of large corporations, but also includes the struggling small business owners. Parenti compares these giant corporations and small businesses to elephants and squirrels, in order to give a better perspective as to who is better able to bully their way around the markets. The other class mentioned by Parenti is the "working class," who primarily live on wages, salaries, and pensions. This class ranges widely from blue collar workers and includes anyone who is not independently wealthy. Parenti goes on to explain how seldom the hard work of someone in this class can ever make them rich. As a matter of fact, the ones who become wealthy or maintain their wealth are the stock holders of the giant corporations. The majority of stockholding owners who are collecting a substantially large income from the labor of others have yet to step foot into the corporation's
Parenti states "most people die in the class to which they were born. Parenti closes by avowing that the information provided in this chapter is not to appear as a direct attack n the U. Parenti also talks about the majority of the U. Parenti points out that when corporations merge, they try to justify the merge by saying it is to "strengthen the competitive capacity of a firm. They are often over-looked for employment, and some employers who do chose to hire them take advantage by placing them in lower paying jobs, denied the opportunity for advancement, and are often treated poorly in the workplace. He also advises that the purpose of large corporations is not to perform services for the public, but rather to make as large of a profit as possible. But to make up for the loss in production, they open up factories abroad and hire double the number of employees in third world countries at extremely lesser wages. Parenti reports that these deprived living conditions often lead to mental disorders, depression and in some cases even suicide. In fact the corporate consolidations get the companies deeper in debt. Another group he talks about is the working-poor. In speaking of the impoverished, he mentions that almost half of that population is elderly (over 65). Parenti acknowledges that certain races and even women suffer from discrimination in the workforce. He states that middle-class white-collar service workers are in non-managerial positions at low wages.
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