The American Century is over: How our country went down in a blaze of shame

``Among the biggest beneficiaries of the current American economic system are not entrepreneurs or innovators, but parasites who owe their wealth to rigged markets or government subsidies. The "parasite load" in the U.S. economy includes many in the financial industry who expect that the federal government will socialize their losses but let them keep their profits -- profits taxed at low rates, or hidden from taxation altogether. Other parasitic special interests include the predatory monopolies of America's health care sector -- the pharma industry, which charges Americans far more for the same drugs than it is allowed to charge in Canada, Europe or Asia; physicians, who tend to be paid much more in the U.S. than in other countries with comparable health outcomes; and price-gouging hospitals. Much of America's higher education industry, too, is riddled with parasites, including bankers who profit from lifelong debt serfdom by Americans who take out student loans and empire-building university administrators who fund personal entourages with public and private money.''