Class Matters

From AlterNet:

But even if there were mobility, such inequality would be problematic. Is it fair that society's wealth be divided so unevenly? Isn't there a decent standard of living -- rising as economies become wealthier -- to which everyone who "works hard and plays by the rules," in the Clintonian formulation, should be entitled? Great social disparity means that the financially well-off use their money and greater political leverage to protect their privilege rather than to design policies for the common good.

In defense of the rich getting richer, former Bush economic advisor Gregory Mankiw wrote in response to the Times series that the richest increased their share when the economy boomed; so if we want prosperity, let the plutocrats prosper. But the economy grew faster in the first three decades after World War II when equality was increasing than in the next three decades when equality was decreasing. In any case, if the income from growth is captured by the very rich, as it largely has been for a couple decades, this path to prosperity offers little to most people.

Also, with high inequality, even the pretense of community declines, social conflict increases and society functions more poorly. Individual mobility is not the only way to improve one's lot. Social solidarity and working together can improve everyone's lot.

Click here for the rest.

Perhaps you've heard the old JFK comment on encouraging economic growth: a rising tide raises all the boats. That pretty much sums up the justification for conservative economic policies that enrich the already wealthy while shafting everybody else. The problem with that line of thinking is that it just doesn't work in the real world, and on the rare occasions that it seems to be working, like the high employment rates in the bubble economy of the late 90s, conservatives hate it because it means that wages have to rise in order to attract scarce labor resources. In other words, the rising tide only occasionally raises all boats, and that's considered to be bad for business.

"Raising all the boats" is clearly a useful myth propagated by the wealthy elites who own and run the country for their own benefit, and it is but one of many widely believed falsehoods. Another myth is the "self-made man" which is closely associated with the concept of "upward mobility." There are, of course, numerous individual instances when Americans have risen out of poverty or the middle class. However, the "numerous" individuals become but a few when compared to most everybody else in the United States. That is, the vast majority of Americans will die in the same economic circumstances into which they were born. If you were born poor, you've got really good odds that you will die poor. "Upward mobility" is simply another useful myth benefitting the wealthy elite.

America is a wildly unequal society, despite the conventional wisdom to the contrary, and that inequality brings a multitude of problems with it. Perhaps the worst problem is that there can be no democracy on an uneven playing field such as ours--as the excerpt above notes, the wealthy are able to buy government policy, and it always benefits their income bracket, almost always at the expense of the rest of the country. Class does matter, and the sooner we figure that out, the better.

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