tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post8159216759706756560..comments2024-03-06T06:34:42.881-05:00Comments on EconoSpeak: Class Resentment and the Center-Left, or the Politics of "We Are the 80%"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-55763306768010015842017-06-12T01:20:42.043-04:002017-06-12T01:20:42.043-04:00dictionary.com says "Did you mean procreate?&...dictionary.com says "Did you mean procreate?"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-15045801754991666372017-06-11T21:40:54.111-04:002017-06-11T21:40:54.111-04:00KABAR BAIK!
Untuk mengenalkan diri dengan benar,
...KABAR BAIK!<br /><br />Untuk mengenalkan diri dengan benar,<br />Ibuku SUSAN dari [SUSAN BOWMAN LOAN COMPANY]<br /><br />Saya adalah pemberi pinjaman pribadi, perusahaan saya memberikan pinjaman segala jenis dengan suku bunga 2% saja. Ini adalah kesempatan finansial di depan pintu Anda, terapkan hari ini dan dapatkan pinjaman cepat Anda.<br /><br />Ada banyak di luar sana yang mencari peluang atau bantuan keuangan di seluruh tempat dan tetap saja, tapi mereka tidak dapat mendapatkannya. Tapi ini adalah kesempatan finansial di depan pintu Anda dan dengan demikian Anda tidak bisa melewatkan kesempatan ini.<br />Layanan ini membuat individu, perusahaan, pelaku bisnis dan wanita.<br />Jumlah pinjaman yang tersedia berkisar dari jumlah pilihan Anda untuk informasi lebih lanjut hubungi kami melalui email:<br />Susanbowmanloancompany@gmail.comSusan bowmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06539946241036060220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-22711744872361527482017-06-11T21:40:00.756-04:002017-06-11T21:40:00.756-04:00KABAR BAIK!
Untuk mengenalkan diri dengan benar,
...KABAR BAIK!<br /><br />Untuk mengenalkan diri dengan benar,<br />Ibuku SUSAN dari [SUSAN BOWMAN LOAN COMPANY]<br /><br />Saya adalah pemberi pinjaman pribadi, perusahaan saya memberikan pinjaman segala jenis dengan suku bunga 2% saja. Ini adalah kesempatan finansial di depan pintu Anda, terapkan hari ini dan dapatkan pinjaman cepat Anda.<br /><br />Ada banyak di luar sana yang mencari peluang atau bantuan keuangan di seluruh tempat dan tetap saja, tapi mereka tidak dapat mendapatkannya. Tapi ini adalah kesempatan finansial di depan pintu Anda dan dengan demikian Anda tidak bisa melewatkan kesempatan ini.<br />Layanan ini membuat individu, perusahaan, pelaku bisnis dan wanita.<br />Jumlah pinjaman yang tersedia berkisar dari jumlah pilihan Anda untuk informasi lebih lanjut hubungi kami melalui email:<br />Susanbowmanloancompany@gmail.comSusan bowmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06539946241036060220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-58566277410670661872017-06-11T07:40:50.530-04:002017-06-11T07:40:50.530-04:00You seem to be under the impression that a) pollst...You seem to be under the impression that a) pollsters are neutral and objective analysts of important social trends, and b) that the role of the MSM in whatever trends there are is again neutral and analytical, rather than being the deliberate creator of such trends, which they most assuredly are.<br /><br />Is it really to be assumed, for instance, that Frank Luntz is only interested in teasing out the delicate nuances of changes in US citizen thought to explain them to the public? Or is he in reality working out what worries and frightens people in the US so that he can sell a scheme to his right-wing employers to take advantage of those fears? I'll give you a clue; the answer's number 2.<br /><br />Next, the US MSM since the collapse of the Socialist Bloc in 1990-91 has increasingly sold itself to its' advertisers rather than the people who buy copies. this inevitably leads to an increasingly right-wing perspective, and when more and more of this garbage, based on the premise that fear and outrage = bums on seats, overwhelms the populace with sensory overload, the MSM and specialist right-wing media paramilitaries like Fox, turn round triumphantly and say "See! We're just reporting what the people believe..!"<br /><br />So, two sides of the same coin; pollsters and MSM feed off each other in an unpleasant symbiotic relationship where each side feeds off the rage-fuelled, psychotic imaginings of the other. And Rupert Murdoch and Sinclair get fat off the profits... Jon Clokenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-66780856442004550792017-06-10T19:03:14.720-04:002017-06-10T19:03:14.720-04:00I would throw managerialism into this (although yo...I would throw managerialism into this (although you briefly mention bosses as being in the 20%). Financialization and neoliberalism have pushed all organizations to install professional managers everywhere (lots of MBAs and accountants). These managers are cost cutters and make the dumb decisions that working people love to tell each other about, all while making six figures. This creates the cynicism that is a big part of populism. And I would argue that this cynicism has been warranted lately and that left-wing populism is the answer. The 20% have clearly failed in important ways. Again, however, it is the ideology of financial capitalism and neoliberalism that has driven this failure.Senator-Electnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-36205284956733765272017-06-10T18:21:33.046-04:002017-06-10T18:21:33.046-04:00"There’s no one else to blame unless you want..."There’s no one else to blame unless you want to denounce yourself and your friends."<br /><br />I completely disagree with the assumption here that no one would do this. In fact, I think a lot of people are perfectly aware that, unless they are on the bottom, they and their friends and peers are part of a system that is the problem, and that the country would be a better place even for them if things were distributed more fairly. Krisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-82107874223537725602017-06-10T16:49:08.290-04:002017-06-10T16:49:08.290-04:00@Anon
JMG is not retired, he is starting a new blo...@Anon<br />JMG is not retired, he is starting a new blog at http://www.ecosophia.net/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-2310388678242202742017-06-10T15:38:56.846-04:002017-06-10T15:38:56.846-04:00Very insightful analysis. It's hardly an accid...Very insightful analysis. It's hardly an accident most in America are only aware of the class just above them. Class is a taboo subject in America and is never taught to school children. The incredible class privilege and inherited wealth of American historical figures is never discussed. Figures as disparate as George Washington and Helen Keller are presented to school children as self-made figures who succeed merely by grit and willpower when really it was money and class advantage that made their successes and life stories possible. The same is true today of our contemporary success stories. Read any fawning NYT profile of a young successful power-broker like Jared Kushner or Gavin Newsome. They always sound super-human and so impressive. Making millions of dollars and conquering the world in their thirties. But if you dig in and read a little bit into their backgrounds their secrets are revealed. Kushner's father was an ethically challenged real estate tycoon that spent millions buying his young mediocre son's way into Harvard. Newsome's father was a well-connected Federal judge and the personal money manager for the Getty fortune who helped his son score big with a few sweetheart deals he would have otherwise never been privilege to. These things simply are not publicized as doing so would embarrass powerful people and destroy the Horatio Alger myth of American meritocracy that is needed to keep bottom 80% of Americans invested in the current system.<br /><br />I agree with your observations except for one point: "From a purely logical or empirical point of view, there’s not much basis for the notion that working class hardship is the result of affirmative action, immigration or even specific trade deals (with the possible exception of the accession of China to the WTO)<br /><br />If you are a native-born, working-class (low skill), citizen and you happen to live in an area that has seen a massive influx of foreign born labor (not everyone does) it stands to reason by the simple laws of supply and demand you have seen your employment opportunities and your wage bargaining power vastly diminished. It doesn't require any stretch of the imagination or racism to reach this conclusion. If the industry that you formerly found gainful employment in has experienced a influx of illegal labor then the negative effects of mass immigration will be multiplied as illegal laborers work off the books for cash and are more easily exploited. Their employment is a total end-run around state protections designed to protect workers from unscrupulous employers. Their availability drags down the wages of everyone attempting to earn a living in their vocation. I live in Los Angeles and you will hardly ever hear a word of english being spoken on a construction site. Do you think the native born construction workers who pay taxes, comply with regulations and have higher costs don't understand why they are consistently underbid for jobs? <br /><br />Yes, nativist sentiment abounds among low-education voters, but its not always unfounded. Low education means low skill and low credentials. These are the people who are forced to compete for the low skills jobs most often taken by new immigrants. People don't swim the Rio Grande then walk into a job at Goldman Sachs or as a surgeon, but they sure do make cheap gardeners and nannies for the people that do. Illegal immigration like every other economic policy in America clearly benefits one class of person while disadvantaging another. What is taught on campus at Stanford in Econ 101 and what happens in reality are frequently very different and racism has very little to do with it. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-58294420124631755212017-06-10T14:00:24.865-04:002017-06-10T14:00:24.865-04:00Hi Peter, I've read a very similar perspective...Hi Peter, I've read a very similar perspective from my favorite (now retired) blogger JM Greer:<br /><br />http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.ca/2016/01/donald-trump-and-politics-of-resentment.html<br /><br />Relevant:<br /><br />...you can determine a huge amount about the economic and social prospects of people in America today by asking one remarkably simple question: how do they get most of their income? Broadly speaking—there are exceptions, which I’ll get to in a moment—it’s from one of four sources: returns on investment, a monthly salary, an hourly wage, or a government welfare check. People who get most of their income from one of those four things have a great many interests in common, so much so that it’s meaningful to speak of the American people as divided into an investment class, a salary class, a wage class, and a welfare class.<br /><br />... There’s a vast amount that could be said about the four major classes just outlined, but I want to focus on the political dimension, because that’s where they take on overwhelming relevance as the 2016 presidential campaign lurches on its way. Just as the four classes can be identified by way of a very simple question, the political dynamite that’s driving the blowback mentioned earlier can be seen by way of another simple question: over the last half century or so, how have the four classes fared?<br /><br />The answer, of course, is that three of the four have remained roughly where they were. The investment class has actually had a bit of a rough time, as many of the investment vehicles that used to provide it with stable incomes—certificates of deposit, government bonds, and so on—have seen interest rates drop through the floor. Still, alternative investments and frantic government manipulations of stock market prices have allowed most people in the investment class to keep up their accustomed lifestyles.<br /><br />The salary class, similarly, has maintained its familiar privileges and perks through a half century of convulsive change. Outside of a few coastal urban areas currently in the grip of speculative bubbles, people whose income comes mostly from salaries can generally afford to own their homes, buy new cars every few years, leave town for annual vacations, and so on. On the other end of the spectrum, the welfare class has continued to scrape by pretty much as before, dealing with the same bleak realities of grinding poverty, intrusive government bureacracy, and a galaxy of direct and indirect barriers to full participation in the national life, as their equivalents did back in 1966.<br /><br />And the wage class? Over the last half century, the wage class has been destroyed. <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-30590710522616199302017-06-10T13:39:19.352-04:002017-06-10T13:39:19.352-04:00Really don't agree regarding trade, including ...Really don't agree regarding trade, including guest workers, illegals, trade deals, h1b, etc, plus moving factories to Mexico, etc.<br />All a successful policy to push down wages and push up profits. <br />Bernie's success brought in many in the bottom half, certainly they responded to his anti billionaire attacks, no doubt also to higher wages and uni health care.<br />Higher wages helps workers only if protected from foreign competition, hamburger flippers will lose higher wage jobs if illegals not stopped, just as higher paid factory workers would need tariffs.<br />No support from bottom half for continuation of past 30 years policies.<br />Course dems and reps will continue taking money to continue as long as possible.John khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05440218753448468369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-11437427510506674422017-06-10T13:26:22.429-04:002017-06-10T13:26:22.429-04:00Dear Iph: my intended audience is you.Dear Iph: my intended audience is you.Peter Dormanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00093399591393648071noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-64480447319234338052017-06-10T10:16:20.214-04:002017-06-10T10:16:20.214-04:00clearlyclearlyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-68108601642175215522017-06-10T10:15:54.195-04:002017-06-10T10:15:54.195-04:00"precariat" ???
who is your audience? ..."precariat" ???<br /><br />who is your audience? clerly not the 80% you are writing about.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-51605306844081739622017-06-10T09:35:37.757-04:002017-06-10T09:35:37.757-04:00This is consistent with resentment of teachers'...This is consistent with resentment of teachers' salaries in many depressed rural areas. In fact, having grown up in such an area, I find this 'resentment' theory quite compelling. The rich love to accuse the Left of resentment, then foment that same impulse as leverage against teachers and govt, workers. Mark Gislesonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05264508885194574116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-35739643645368496682017-06-10T09:30:01.700-04:002017-06-10T09:30:01.700-04:00There is some research relevant to Peter's hyp...There is some research relevant to Peter's hypothesis. Start with a very interesting study related in The New Minority by Prof Justin Gest at George Mason. His data focused on working-class attitudes toward minorities, but it is not inconsistent with Peter's hypothesis about blame and resentment. A comfortably-retired senior officer and later senior bureaucrat at DOT, and HHS, I thought there was stinging truth reflected in this post.<br /><br />Assuming Peter is dead on, how can things be turned around and the "working class" feel respected? Surely bailing out Wall Street but not Main Street was an epic blunder. However, that toothpaste is out of the tube, and the DNC still seems oblivious of that problem. <br /><br />While kind-hearted people ruminate about Trumpism, they continue to act against the interests of the working class and have succeeded in hamstringing the Federal Government by failing to appoint leaders, gutting budgets, and pissing off almost every US ally in the entire world.<br /><br />Alas, we seem to be fiddling while Rome burns, and we should hear a refrain from the lower 80%: "If you're so smart, why could you let this happen?" The sad fact is that the .01% control us too, and we are living in the REAL House of Cards.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-69803604272464702842017-06-10T07:40:20.663-04:002017-06-10T07:40:20.663-04:00@Bruce Wilder -- I think it might be more accurate...@Bruce Wilder -- I think it might be more accurate to say that people resent one class up, and fear one class down.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-91505317068115199942017-06-09T15:27:53.831-04:002017-06-09T15:27:53.831-04:00I have no data on this, Peter, but this is an insi...I have no data on this, Peter, but this is an insightful post that I think has a lot of truth in it.rosserjb@jmu.eduhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09300046915843554101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-43959289921022525542017-06-08T15:45:30.131-04:002017-06-08T15:45:30.131-04:00I would think it rather obvious that people resent...I would think it rather obvious that people resent down as well as up.Bruce Wilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09631065564839959376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-17055896319238053662017-06-08T15:43:15.990-04:002017-06-08T15:43:15.990-04:00". . . the upper .01% of the income distribut...". . . <i>the upper .01% of the income distribution. They play the largest role in funding and positioning the two major political parties.</i>"<br />.<br />I highlight the above key to your analysis, because while class is a necessary and maybe for the purposes of your analysis, an invariant aspect of the political structure of a hierarchical political economy, the financing and operation of political parties is not.<br />.<br />The neoliberal turn in politics eventually put both major American political parties into the hands of a few billionaires and giant corporations and, arguably, both Party establishments found themselves alienated from their electoral bases in the most recent election cycle.<br />.<br />It is theoretically conceivable that some of the 20% should work for membership or cooperative organizations rather than billionaires and giant corporate enterprises seeking to manipulate and feed on the working and previously merely middle class. Compared to the first half of the 20th century when upper class Progressives were leading populist farmers and unionizing industrial workers in reform and the erection of institutions of countervailing power, our present political arrangements can make little use of social and political organization below. American society bowls alone and the apparatus of mobilization is largely an apparatus of media manipulation from the top-down. Moreover, while there was great geographical dispersion and diversity in the first half of the 20th century, the present American class and economic hierarchy is remarkably concentrated and homogeneous. A few financial and media behemoths dominate and complex systems of networked control consolidate their domination, and the staff attendant to this system forms a remarkably homogeneous group concentrated in a few geographic centers. Bruce Wilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09631065564839959376noreply@blogger.com