IT'S CALLED RENT-SEEKING.

Common Dreams contributor Jonathan Rich is not optimistic about the incoming Democratic government doing much for the wretched of the earth.

Trump's actions did not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they are a symptom of a deeper crisis in electoral politics that has been growing for several years.

The first reason for this crisis is that the US political system is not a "democracy" at all, but rather an oligarchy run by the unchecked power of corporate bribery. A 2014 Princeton study, for example, found that ordinary working people have virtually no say in government decisions.

The way forward might be something other than changing the methods of appointing presidential electors or the Democrats' rigged presidential nominations.  The more decisions the national government (read: the president and the departmental secretaries issuing regulations) takes, the more rents there will be to generate and dissipate.