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When the US targeted Russia’s #oligarchs after the invasion of Ukraine, the trail of assets kept leading to our own backyard.
Not only had our nation become a haven for shady foreign money, but we were also incubating a familiar class of yacht-owning, industry-dominating, resource-extracting #billionaires.
In the January + February 2024 issue of our magazine, we investigate the rise of #American #Oligarchy—and what it means for the rest of us
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/01/american-oligarchy/
The playbook that Jeff #Bezos, #Musk, and others have relied on isn’t new.
More than a century ago, the railroad tycoons of the #Gilded #Age enticed towns to hand them favorable deals in exchange for laying lines that passed through their communities.
The supposed benefits of these projects rarely materialized:
Many of the promised tracks were never completed, or the routes were discontinued soon after their construction.
Worse yet, the towns often had to impose steep new #taxes to offset the #incentives, triggering a wave of municipal defaults.
The trend of unmet promises by corporate titans has continued into the present day.
#Tesla’s Buffalo plant has created just 54 cents of economic benefit for every subsidy dollar the state invested, a state audit found;
the initial contract has been amended several times, extending completion dates and reducing employment targets.
#Amazon announced it was pausing construction on the second phase of its Virginia headquarters.
According to the governor’s office, the number of Wisconsin jobs #Foxconn initially promised to create has dwindled by 89 percent.
And then there is Boca Chica’s Starbase.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/01/elon-musk-spacex-texas-boca-chica-oligarchy/
