It’s certainly no secret that when left to its own devices capitalism does some things badly or not at all. It’s also no secret the devastating effects unfettered capitalism has had on the middle-class. Despite three decades of economic expansion and growth, historic profits, record productivity, extraordinarily low taxation rates and massive CEO compensation-middle-class incomes have remained stagnated. Consumer protections have eroded; labor unions have been eviscerated and taxpayers spend over eighty-five billion dollars annually on corporate subsidies. These failures resemble Imperial Rome where all the forms of the republic remain in place; however, in this case the actual decisions are being made by the corporatocracy. Republicans defend this model of governance with a distorted rationalization that suggests the right of corporations to freely exchange value supersedes the people’s right to equal and fair representation. This limited worldview believes the self-interests of a corporatocracy-who are intent on dismantling the middleclass and privatizing the economy outweighs the greater interests of our democracy. The consequences of unfettered capitalism are so thoroughly established, visible across so many different measures and so well analyzed, that except for a few ideological crackpots, duped by a deplorable grifter who has escalated the problem-it becomes impossible to ignore just how much the middleclass is getting screwed in the name of job creation, profits, corporate welfare and the endless pursuit of wealth.
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Discussion2 Comments
Seems to me the difference between the super wealthy capitalist class and the average working person is that the former have an ‘everyman for themselves’ attitude while the latter believe in working together and creating a better world for everyone. It’s seems a matter of love vs. fear / compassion or the lack of. The ruling class appears to be greedy and fearful of losing what they have, including power, and they don’t want to share; while, the rest of us, for the most part, are willing to share, help, and strive to make the society work for all.
You make an excellent point which gets to the crux of the problem…..fear. The next logical question of course is why they rely on fear-based thinking to guide their decision making. I covered some of the biological aspects of this question in the latest post entitled “Emotional Contagion”. However, I would also add that over the last few decades, fundamental Christian radicalization has significantly influenced this problem. It began to push conservative republicans towards a self-moralizing ideology supported with daily demagoguery. The consequence is a maladaptive sense of morality that is directly tied to their status in relation to other people. If their state is higher than someone else’s, it’s because they are of higher morality and god has righteously smiled upon them and punished the others for lack of moral character. In many cases however, this belief contradicts their own station in life…….many poor conservatives simply view themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires. Therefore, the disparity between their current economic state and their own godliness exist solely because undeserving, moral degenerates stole their deserved wealth. It is precisely this kind of dead-end thinking that creates an empathy gap and leads to voting against their own best interests.