I think we make a mistake describing the unrelenting class warfare underway as a campaign undertaken by evil, crazed or demented very rich people. Sure, there are a few of them and it is certainly a part of an ideological belief ("we rich people are just better and more skilled and tough luck"). But, let's not forget that a very powerful motivating factor is: they just don't see a need for things we believe in because they can simply buy anything they want. Consider the billionaire mayor of New York.
Today, we learn:
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg intends to eliminate 4,278 teaching jobs through layoffs, and about 1,500 through attrition, marking the first significant layoffs of teachers since the fiscal crisis of the 1970s.
The slashing of jobs is part of the Mr. Bloomberg’s effort to slice an additional $400 million from various city agencies to help plug a multibillion-dollar deficit in his $65.6 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1. That budget is about the same size as the current one.
And:
In his budget presentation on Friday, the mayor is expected to attribute some of the city’s budget difficulties to Albany and Washington. In particular, he is expected to discuss how the money the city contributes to the budget has steadily increased over the past several years as federal and state sources have dried up.
This is part of the phony debate about our "deficit" and "debt" crisis. There is no shortage of money in the country--but people like Bloomberg, even though he is presumably elected to serve all the people of the city, will never engage in a campaign to, for example, extend the income tax surcharge on the wealthiest New Yorkers.
And it often comes down to this: Bloomberg can always buy the best private teachers for his kids, as can his other wealthy friends. There is no service they cannot buy--within their walled compounds or at their vacation homes. They believe they can avoid all the services that the rest of the people need.
Of course, they are wrong in the most fundamental and short-sited way. No society that sacrifices its teachers in favor of greed and avarice will ever produce future generations of workers and productive individuals--the very people the billionaires will need to work in their companies and create the real value that, then, leads to a long-term health company ("real value" compared to the overpaid CEOs who plunder the treasuries of most Fortune 500 companies).
Updated by Tasini at Fri May 06, 2011 at 01:44 PM EDT
Getting on a plane so...