[PapaNew]

I don't buy the Marxist view that the rich are per se the oppressors of the poor. Our Founders were rich and they created a country that has helped more poor people than any nation in modern history. In a free society, the rich HELP the poor.

But historically government IS the per se oppressor of the the poor.

[Jack Hydrazine]

I’m not talking about the Founding Fathers. It started in the UK with a one percenter, Robert Owen, there and then he spread that idea to the one percenters here.

[Jack Hydrazine]

And who has historically run those governments of the past and present that have oppressed its citizenry or subjects?

Again, it is the one percenters.

Collectivism, at its best, oppresses in a subtle and indirect way. For the one percenters collectivism is a legitimate-appearing way of doing so under the guise of best intentions.