Class Warfare

Oh get real.

Obama’s melange of proposals include letting the Bush tax cut for the wealthy expire. That was the Bush plan, although I am sure he imagined the Republicans could force it to linger on indefinitely. But now that Obama suggests executing the Bush plan we hear cries of “class warfare” from the right.

Really?

And bashing unions throughout the past thirty years wasn’t?

Limiting welfare for the poor wasn’t?

Allowing hedge fund managers to pretend income is capital gain, isn’t?

Cutting taxes on the wealthy more than on the poor isn’t?

Suggesting we need to eliminate entitlements that support the poor more than the wealthy isn’t?

Deregulating finance so that it can pay those massive bonuses isn’t?

Going for austerity economics rather than growth, a decision that will hit the weak the hardest, isn’t?

Heck, decrying the fact that about half of potential taxpayers don’t pay enough tax because they’re too poor, isn’t?

Americans are taught from an early age that they live in some kind of classless nirvana where everyone has an opportunity to make it to the top. That myth has been undone by research, but perpetuates itself because the reality lurking in the shadows is a very unsavory one. America is as much infested by class conflicts as any other place. Any nation that tries to mix red blooded capitalism with a mild form of democracy will be riven through by the conflict inherent between those two great systems.

The quiescence of the post-war era in America was built on the partial triumph of democracy over capitalism. Wages grew. The middle class burgeoned. Households saw their comfort and security grow to hitherto unattainable levels. This cornucopia was underwritten by government safety nets and fueled by a partnership between employers and workers. Neither side ripped the other off. But underneath that glossy veneer the old anti-democratic urge of business and a hobbled capitalism bridled. Profit was leaking out in the form of wage increases. Inflation devalued credit and favored debt. The middle class dominated the vote and protected its wealth. Taxes moved wealth from one group to another. The middle class grew because it tamed the class above it. It had won the class war.

Until Reagan persuaded it to act against itself.

Central to his success was his ability to burnish the myth of a classless society within which government represented an enemy. Which it did: it was the enemy of big business and its propertied allies. Subsequent to Reagan’s victory money flowed to conservative causes. The alliance grew. Crucial to its success was the continuation of the classless myth, and the associated fear of parasitic minorities who had suborned government to milk the middle class. That fear was baseless but effective.

As the wealthy began to press back the gains of the middle class and to re-establish the privileges of capital, it became more necessary to continue the illusion that the middle class no longer needed the protection of government or the unions. Indeed those protectors were turned into leeches to be eliminated or constrained. Both were characterized as old fashioned, inefficient, and an encumbrance on individual freedom.

As more and more middle class families struggled they were told they were suffering from the shackles of big brother. If only those chains were broken they would soar free.

As free as goldfish in a river infested by piranha.

Without the capital or education to succeed and with wages strangled by the vicious combination of global competition and business profit driven cost cutting, the middle class borrowed its way to oblivion. It depended on real estate. When the bubble finally exposed the bankruptcy of the entire Reagan era policy delusion it was too late.

Far, far too late.

Now the middle class is being told it has to accept austerity to protect he lenders who pillaged profit from the bubble; it is being told to cut back and accept a diminished future; it is being told that the halcyon days are done and that its children will have less; it is being told it was to blame because of all that borrowing; it is being told it lacks the skill to compete with foreign workers; it is being told it expects to be paid too much; and it is being told it has to contribute more to those entitlement programs because its “unfair” to make the wealthy pay more.

And this isn’t class warfare?

You’re kidding me. Right?