"The privileged few are the beneficiaries of corporatocracy: corporate executives and directors, major stockholders, Wall Street bankers and brokers, top-tier Washington lobbyists, holders of inherited wealth, etc. De facto plutocrats, these are the country’s richest families whose wealth and incomes, in vivid contrast, are steadily rising... The maldistribution of wealth and incomes we suffer could not occur in a functioning democracy: self-governing people would never impoverish the many to enrich the few... Corporatocracy is directly and exclusively responsible here. Corporocratic governance relentlessly promotes public policies favoring corporate interests over the public good—and just as relentlessly stifles policies that might do otherwise."