Recently I listened to
Mike Malloy who was subbing in for
Randi Rhodes during her vacation. In the course of one of his rants, Malloy went off on how U.S. policies during the 80s and 90s decimated the Iraq middle class. Without a middle class, he suggested, Saddam was free to run amok, terrorizing his people. Malloy noted that only a middle class could rise up and slaughter Hussein. The poor, so consumed with day to day survival, can't think about or plan a revolt against a dictator. The upper class, so comfortable and, often, so connected or beholden to the dictator, won't free themselves from the velvet trap. But the middle class, educated and informed, with a full belly and a roof over their heads, has time and ability to dream about how things can be better. They can and do plan and execute revolts.
That got me thinking.....is the same thing going on in our country right now? Are we seeing a winnowing of the middle class? A strapping of the middle class? An exhausting of the middle class so that we'll have a time when we don't have anyone who can stand up to a dictator and a ruling corporate class?
The middle class is under attack - just watch Lou Dobbs on CNN. Each night, he has a segment on "The War on the Middle Class." It even has its own mini-logo. Lou panders to a segment of the population that blames its problems on illegal immigrants. I'm not his demographic. I'd rather blame a club of military-industrial-corporate-lobby-mostly Republican legislator-Wall Street old money, new money boys who run this country either by legal election, questionable "election," appointment or purchase.
There is something going on. Policies are being made that make it harder to maintain a middle class. American Prospect has a series on the problem. Here's a sampling:
*The bankruptcy bill passed in 2005 will make it harder for people to get a second chance. New credit card policies will make it harder to get out of debt, rendering most of us indentured servants to the financial big dogs.
*Making cuts or changes to the student loan programs will make harder to obtain and/or pay back student loans. This will saddle working and middle class people with more education debt, longer. Education policies depend on drill and standardized testing, holding schools and teachers solely accountable for students' achievement, all dressed up to look like reform when, in fact, it's a system engineered to fail so that down the road it can be said that 'public education is a failure' and 'school choice (read: vouchers)' is the solution. This will make it even harder for working and middle class children to get a good education.
*Policies make it easier and more attractive for companies to move jobs overseas, particularly those jobs which helped create and sustain a solid middle class. Over the last thirty years, there's been a battering and reduction of labor unions which helped build and support the middle class. The Bush Administration has made lame noises about reducing illegal immigration, but it's all farce. Their policies don't punish or discourage companies or employers from suppressing wages through the use of illegal immigrants. While this doesn't directly endanger the middle class, the overall effect is a suppression of wages, and the middle class has seen wage stagnation that, with the increase cost of health care and fuel, has been a step backward.
*Tax policies which favor the wealthy, create deficits and reduce safety net programs which have made it possible for people to move from the working and poor classes to the middle class, they also shift the bill from those with money to those without
*Changes to the Supreme Court, adding more Federalist Society heft to the bench, will result in a court that favors corporations over individuals, making it harder to enforce worker and consumer rights
*Corporations are allowed to raid and/or underfund their workers' (not the executive's) pension plans, leaving them high and dry, turning to the government to bail them out and requiring retirees to assume greater risk or accept reduced benefits
*Consumer and financial protections policies have been changed or "repositioned," increasing the risk of the middle class and making it harder to seek legal action when they suffer a loss
A couple of blogs caught my attention tonight. First, David Sirota points us to a series from the LA Times which covers the middle class. The other, posted here by xrepub focuses on CEO pay versus the minimum wage. There's no getting around the fact that if the minimum wage went up, all boats would rise with that tide. Including the average wage of the middle class.
So what is going on? Is there a grand scheme to decimate our middle class so that the ruling corporate class can have free, unfettered reign over this nation? Is it just coincidence? I don't want to give this administration more credit than it deserves, but I also don't trust it.