title: fbi wiretapped corruption suspect discussing clinton deals
text: whos really to blame for the corrupting influence of money in washington dc november   walter williams 
  microsoft cofounder bill gates having a net worth of  billion and amazoncom ceo jeff bezos having a net worth of  billion are the nations two richest men they are at the top of the forbes  list of americas superrich individuals people who have net worths of billions of dollars many see the rich as a danger new york times columnist bob herbert wrote it doesnt really matter what ordinary people want the wealthy call the tune and the politicians dance his colleague paul krugman wrote on paper were a onepersononevote nation in reality were more than a bit of an oligarchy in which a handful of wealthy people dominate its sentiments like these that have led me to wish there were a humane way to get rid of the rich for without having the rich around to be whipping boys and distract our attention we might be able to concentrate on whats best for the  percent of the rest of us 
  lets look at the power of the rich with all the money that gates bezos and other superrich people have what can they force you or me to do can they condemn our houses to create space so that another individual can build an auto dealership or a casino parking lot can they force us to pay money into the governmentrun  and doomed  obamacare program can they force us to bus our children to schools out of our neighborhood in the name of diversity can they force us to buy our sugar from a highcost domestic producer rather than from a lowcost caribbean producer the answer to all of these questions is a big fat no 
  you say williams i dont understand let me be more explicit bill gates cannot order you to enroll your child in another school in order to promote racial diversity he has no power to condemn your house to make way for a casino parking lot unless our elected public officials grant them the power to rip us off rich people have little power to force us to do anything a lowly municipal clerk earning  a year has far more lifeanddeath power over us it is that type of person to whom we must turn for permission to build a house ply a trade open a restaurant and do myriad other activities its government people not rich people who have the power to coerce us and rip us off they have the power to make our lives miserable if we disobey this coercive power goes a long way toward explaining legalized political corruption 
  take just one of thousands of examples the fanjuls are among the biggest sugar cane growers and they coown the worlds largest refining company american sugar refining which markets its product under the brand names domino ch redpath tate  lyle and florida crystals during the  election cycle florida crystals contributed more than  to candidates and political spending groups it spent more than  million lobbying congress the us departments of agriculture and commerce and the office of the us trade representative heres my question to you do you think it forked over all that money to help our elected representatives uphold and defend the us constitution nonsense the fanjuls and other sugar producers want congress to use tariffs to keep foreignproduced sugar out of our country so they can reap the financial benefits from being able to charge americans two to three times the world price of sugar 
  so heres the ultimate question if some rich people can line the pockets of politicians to do their bidding at the expense of the rest of us whos to blame i think its we the people who are to blame for not using our votes to run such politicians out of town  and thats most of them but that might be deceitful of us for we also ask politicians to enable us to live at the expense of others