Rejecting The Terms Of Class Warfare
Recently, I undertook to highlight the dangerous foolishness inherent in David Axelrod's lament that the government just doesn't have $700 billion tucked away in a mason jar in one of Congressman Rangel's rental properties, waiting to be distributed as cuts. The idea that that which you earn is not really yours, but instead belongs to a government which may or may not allow you to keep a portion of it strikes me as despotic in its assumptions.
My larger contention is that we on the right would be well served to refute the terms of the debate with the collectivists at the outset. The polls indicate that only 20% of the population describe themselves as liberal, so why should the majority acquiesce to their paradigm? I am unable, for example, to listen to the news without hearing politicians and pundits of every political persuasion discuss the urgent need to extend the current tax rates for the middle class.
What constitutes the middle class and who decides its qualifications? Is there an application for membership? Are there dues requirements? What are the income requirements? Do official titles matter? For that matter, what are the parameters for the lower class, if there even is such a thing? I was kicked out of American government class in high school once for making a rather blunt assessment of Jimmy Carter's effectiveness during the Iranian hostage crisis. Is it similarly possible to get kicked out of the middle class and into the lower class? Who would I have to insult to pull that one off? Can I get promoted if I sing the praises of Frank Rich?
As a little boy I asked my parents if we were poor, to which they responded that "poor" is a state or mind. Likewise, since no one has been able to define exactly what constitutes the middle class, I suspect that it too is a state of mind. The whole concept of dividing people against each other on the basis of class was given an energetic boost by Karl Marx from whose forlorn mind rose the progressive income tax, an idea whose midwife in the US was the American left. In fact, the process of treating people not as individuals, but rather as faceless cogs in the great assemblies whose identities are framed by income levels, ethnicity, gender, or class is utterly alien to America's founding.
On the contrary, to the extent that we treat people as groups rather than individuals, we dehumanize them, and to what end? To facilitate the process by which the state and its enthusiasts pit us against each other and convince us that our group can only succeed at the expense of another, and that such success depends ultimately on the wise and benevolent hand of our superiors in Washington DC, as guided by the Center For American Progress.
There was an old story about an elderly gentleman who became disoriented in the French Quarter in New Orleans and wandered into a Bourbon St. house of ill repute. A young lady met him at the door and asked, "Would you like some super sex?" Hard of hearing, the old gentleman replied, "Oh, I believe I'll have the soup." Likewise, I may be philosophically hard of hearing, but I reject the efforts of the collectivist to herd Americans into groups, denying individual aspirations, desires, and liberty. I insist that the guy who owns the trucking company and the guy who drives the truck depend on each other for the success of both, and reject outright that one is more entitled to his property than the other. All Americans deserve a government that respects its own proper limitations and secures the freedom of its citizens. This class warfare nonsense is destructive, and we would be better off to dispense with its terminology as well. Like the gentleman in New Orleans, I believe I'll have the soup.
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Jun '10
Re: Rejecting The Terms Of Class Warfare
Thievery is thievery. It's as wrong to pick Bill Gates' pocket as it is to pick Bill the Panhandler's pocket. And in recent years, if you ask Gates nicely, he'll give you twenty million, if it's for a good cause. Most of us are good people. You don't have to threaten us with jail time if we don't share. We'll direct our money to where we think it does the most good.
Aug '10
Re: Rejecting The Terms Of Class Warfare
DC - "As a little boy I asked my parents if we were poor, to which they responded that "poor" is a state or mind."
Another great post, Dave. When I was kid, my dad owned a handful of discount stores. Kids at school told me I was rich. (It was news to me.) I asked my Dad if we were rich. He said, "No, son. I just owe more money than most."
Jul '10
Re: Rejecting The Terms Of Class Warfare
There's something fundamentally wrong with me. Whenever I see some guy cruising along in a Ferrari, I automatically think, "Nice car. Good for him."
Try as I might, I just cannot summon up the will to imagine how many people he screwed, how many ways he must have cheated and how many of the "poor" could have their lives enriched if government would just come and snatch his ride away.
I'm envy-deficient.
May '10
Re: Rejecting The Terms Of Class Warfare
You'll appreciate this exchange between Andrea Mitchell and Judd Gregg where he has to remind her that the money is question actually belongs to "the rich" that Mrs.Greenspan proclaims "don't need it."
http://www.mrc.org/biasalert/2010/20101207051102.aspx
Jul '10
Re: Rejecting The Terms Of Class Warfare
Trace Urdan: You'll appreciate this exchange between Andrea Mitchell and Judd Gregg where he has to remind her that the money is question actually belongs to "the rich" that Mrs.Greenspan proclaims "don't need it."
http://www.mrc.org/biasalert/2010/20101207051102.aspx · Dec 7 at 3:47pm
Forget it, Trace. You'll have to pony up bigger bucks than you got to get me to watch Andrea Mitchell.
Uh-uh.
May '10
Re: Rejecting The Terms Of Class Warfare
Soup or sex...why not have both!
Jul '10
Re: Rejecting The Terms Of Class Warfare
Stressing the existence of categories is, of late, simply a way to further class warfare, implying that some get ‘rich’ at the expense of the little people. To counter this nonsense, P. J. O’Rourke in his book Eat the Rich sums things up quite nicely:
“Economics is not zero-sum. There is no fixed amount of wealth [in the economy]. That is, if you have too many slices of pizza, I’m not left having to eat the box. Your money does not cause my poverty. Refusal to believe this is at the bottom of most bad economic thinking.”
Sep '10
Re: Rejecting The Terms Of Class Warfare
When statists discuss income, in whatever context, they often use class envy and/or its enabler emotion over reason as tools of obfuscation and feint.
The "We Fallacy" is discussed at www.mises.org/daily/3076, illustrating the basic flaw of collectivism.
Also, Dr. Thomas Sowell, in Economic Facts and Fallacies, talks about income statistics of various third-world countries and how misleading such stats can be:
"...comparing statistical categories of nations over time produces very different results from those of comparing the same nations over time. The World Bank ... has produced statistics showing that the ratio between the incomes of the 20 highest income countries and the 20 lowest income countries has grown ... from 1960 to 2000, rising from about 23-to-one to about 36-to-one. The directly opposite conclusion would be reached when comparing the same set of nations in 2000 as in 1960. The income ratio between the initially richest 20 nations and the initially poorest 20 nations declined from 23-to-one to less than ten-to-one." (Author's italics)
This requires some thought (by me, anyway) to comprehend. Income disparity between nations grows, or not? Depends on how the stats are presented...
Sep '10
Re: Rejecting The Terms Of Class Warfare
Kenneth: There's something fundamentally wrong with me. Whenever I see some guy cruising along in a Ferrari, I automatically think, "Nice car. Good for him."
Try as I might, I just cannot summon up the will to imagine how many people he screwed, how many ways he must have cheated and how many of the "poor" could have their lives enriched if government would just come and snatch his ride away.
I'm envy-deficient. · Dec 7 at 3:11pm
At a former job, I tried to educate the young folks about how class envy is used to sway them. I used the example of a peer of mine who had done well for himself, becoming financially independent enough to retire at age 55. (No pension, etc., just a garden variety retail pharmacist). I asked them, "How has Dave hurt any of you in any way by becoming so wealthy?" I live in hope that it made them think about it, at least a little.
Aug '10
Re: Rejecting The Terms Of Class Warfare
Dave, I think you're right that the middle class is at least as much a cultural category as an economic category.
When I think of "middle class", what comes to mind first is not a particular income range or set of material goods. Rather, I first picture cultural associations -- valuing thrift and delayed gratification, respecting family ties (like marrying before having kids), keeping a neat dwelling (though I personally have problems with this one), valuing education, and participating in neighborhood associations, such as church or temple, the animal shelter, or the Scouting troop.
To fit my mental picture of "middle class", a family does not need to have a certain list of materials goods -- such as TVs, air conditioning, cell phones, or even computers (though computers are getting harder to avoid). Nor does the family have to own a house (what's wrong with apartment rental?). Many middle-class families have some or all of these things. But I cannot picture any one of these things as necessary to middle-class-ness.
May '10
Re: Rejecting The Terms Of Class Warfare
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
Dave, I think you're right that the middle class is at least as much a cultural category as an economic category.
When I think of "middle class", ...
Middle class and middle income are not synonymous, but they are becoming so. A sociologist once told me they define middle class as, among other things, having a father who attended college. When I told my students at a large midwestern university that I was not middle class, they looked skeptical.
Nov '10
Re: Rejecting The Terms Of Class Warfare
I know what you mean. When my grandmother died of lung cancer it never once crossed my mind to say, "Those [radio edit] tobacco companies are going to pay for this!"
It's like a law of liberalism: Any problem must be blamed on the richest person possible.