Any community, region or country serious about how engaged people feel need to think about how plutocracy fits into the model. Plutocracy is a society or a system ruled and dominated by the small minority of the wealthiest citizens. (Wikipedia) Plutocracy is clearly a complex issue. Once a society reaches the tipping points where elected and appointed government leaders are essentially controlled by the economic influence of wealthiest, no one on either side has the power to change the dynamic. Many policy reform proposals fail to gain enough traction because the dynamic rewards everyone on both sides.
A less published but real issue I often encounter is the "average" citizen's actual deep fear of the chaos that would happen if the wealthiest lost power. They fear more and deeper corporate welfare bailouts and massive layoffs to sustain wealth levels. I believe these fears are enough to keep the whole issue out of everyday conversations, making its continuance more possible.
We need to think about what adult conversations about these issues would sound like and how we can convene them for the good of the whole.
