| Submit your comments on this article |
| Economy |
| America's new class system |
| 2014-09-09 |
| We've heard a lot of election-year class warfare talk, from makers vs. takers to the 1% vs. the 99%. But Joel Kotkin's important new book, The New Class Conflict, suggests that America's real class problems are deeper, and more damaging, than election rhetoric. Traditionally, America has been thought of as a place of great mobility -- one where anyone can conceivably grow up to be president, regardless of background. This has never been entirely true, of course. Most of our presidents have come from reasonably well-off backgrounds, and even Barack Obama, a barrier-breaker in some ways, came from an affluent background and enjoyed an expensive private-school upbringing. But the problem Kotkin describes goes beyond shots at the White House. In a nutshell, Kotkin sees California, once again, in its role as an indicator of where the nation is headed. And it's not an attractive destination. Once a state where the middle class reigned supreme, the apotheosis of the American Dream, California now has the wealth distribution -- and, in some disturbing ways, the political underpinnings -- of a Third World country. In Silicon Valley, a group of super-wealthy tech oligarchs live lives of almost unimaginable wealth, while only a few miles away, illegal immigrants live in squalor. The oligarchs feel free, and even entitled, to choose the direction of society in the name of a greater good, but somehow their policies seem mostly to make the oligarchs richer and more powerful. Meanwhile, once-prosperous middle-class communities, revolving around manufacturing industries that have now moved overseas, either sink into poverty or become gentrified homes for the lower-upper class. The middle class itself, meanwhile, is increasingly, in Kotkin's words, "proletarianized," with security vanishing and jobs moving downscale. The oligarchs are assisted in their control by what Kotkin calls the "clerisy" class -- an amalgam of academics, media and government employees who play the role that medieval clergy once played in legitimizing the powerful, and in implementing their policies while quelling resistance from the masses. The clerisy isn't as rich as the oligarchs, but it does pretty well for itself and is compensated in part by status, its positions allowing even its lower-paid members to feel superior to the hoi polloi. Because it doesn't have to work in competitive industries, the clerisy favors regulations, land-use rules and environmental restrictions that make things worse for businesses -- especially the small "yeoman" businesses that traditionally sustained much of the middle class -- thus further hollowing out the middle of the income distribution. But the lower classes, sustained by government handouts and by rhetoric from the clerisy, provide enough votes to keep the machine running, at least for a while. This process has gone very far in California, but it's well underway across America. As the Federal Reserve noted last week, despite a booming stock market and several years of "recovery," most Americans aren't doing well. In fact only the top 10% saw their incomes rise between 2010 and 2013. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #7 yadda yaddah yaddah..... except in Texas. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2014-09-09 23:17 |
| #6 Again, NORTH-VS-SOUTH HEMISPHERES IN NEW COLD WAR, WID THE STILL-EXPANDING ISIS CALIPHATE ON THE OWG "MASON-DIXON LINE" AKA THE EQUATOR. From the ME to the Philippines + SE Asia. * FYI WORLD NEWS > IRAN SUPREME LEADER [Khameini]: PREPARE FOR THE "NEW WORLD ORDER". Which IRAN = 'MAHANIST" RISING IRAN = OWG CO-SUPERPOWER IRAN is helping to create, + in which Iran will ultimately supplant or replace the US, etc. as Western Capitalism + influence collapses. IRAN + ISLAM MAKING MIGHTY INROADS INTO LATIN AMERICA + PARTS OF ASIA. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2014-09-09 22:59 |
| #5 The middle class itself, meanwhile, is increasingly, in Kotkin's words, "proletarianized," with security vanishing and jobs moving downscale. Many have moved out of state, or at least out of the urban areas. Small business started baling out about 20-25 years ago. Now the retirees are leaving. Good Luck, Guv'nor Jerry. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2014-09-09 20:42 |
| #4 ...revolving around manufacturing industries that have now moved overseas Norma Rae to the courtesy phone. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2014-09-09 18:09 |
| #3 Correction: "Giant Sucking Sound." |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-09-09 17:45 |
| #2 Para 5, cheap labor, the downside. Remember the "big sucking sound." |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-09-09 17:44 |
| #1 IMO: Third Century Rome. |
| Posted by: borgboy 2014-09-09 16:32 |