On December 28, the New York Times ran an article about a small group of powerful people in Minnesota. The members of the Itasca Project, who aren’t elected, are, in the words of Times journalist Nelson D. Schwartz, “a private civic initiative by 60 or so local leaders to further growth and development in the Twin Cities.” But rather than exposing the group as a secret cabal running things in a large American city, the article reads more like an advertisement. Schwartz calls the 13 men and women of the Itasca Project’s Working Team “The Establishment 2.0,” and he doesn’t seem to mean it in a bad way.

From their borrowed perch on the 38th floor of an unnamed but identifiable Minneapolis skyscraper, the Itasca Project’s goal is to shape regional economic policy through direct collective influence on lawmakers. The group has successfully pushed through a gas tax increase to fund transportation infrastructure, state support for local businesses, as well as a government agency to attract new companies. Soon, they want to get involved in education reform, shoving McKinsey consultants and their rubrics on public schools. Schwartz credits the Itasca Project with a peculiar kind of friendly Midwestern ethic, but their behavior isn’t so strange. It’s just what capitalists do.

When we Americans talk about capitalism, it’s usually as an economic system that complements the political system of democracy. Competing capitalists keep the state from accumulating too much power, and the elected government puts a regulatory check on business interests. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work. In practice, it goes a little differently. Think of the presidential election: Not one person has cast even a primary ballot, but the wealthy have already spent untold millions preparing our choices. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was forced to drop out of the campaign in September for lack of funds. His particular demise is no loss for the country, but if even a union-busting midwestern Republican can’t afford to compete, then how much of a choice do we really have?

The Itasca Project is just one example of existing oligarchy, and a surprisingly open one at that. But even if they don’t announce themselves on the cover of the Times business section, groups of millionaires exercise undue influence on every aspect of American life every day. There are millionaires who back each national Party and some who back both. Their foundations conduct diplomacy with foreign heads of state and their Chambers of Commerce accompany the American government wherever it operates. There are groups of millionaires who determine education policy, communications policy, agriculture policy, monetary policy, and whatever other policy you can think of. There’s even “The Patriotic Millionaires,” a group of — yes, millionaires — devoted to reducing the political influence of … millionaires. A member of their advisory board, the aptly-named textile tycoon James Richman, has given thousands of dollars to both the Clinton and Bush 2016 presidential campaigns.