Surviving Capitalism (Not) : What’s class got to do with it?

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, December 12, 2015

What’s class got to do with it?

Click here to access article by David F. Ruccio from his blog Occasional Links & Commentary.

This economist posts a graph from the St. Louis Federal Reserve to dramatically show the constant increasing inequality in the US, particularly accelerating after every recession. It seems that our capitalist class masters like recessions because they present opportunities for them to increase their wealth (and its associated power). He also provides a commentary on an an article--from a site supported by a government workers union--whose author, Jared Bernstein, provides many graphs of a similar nature.

However Ruccio complains about the lack of examination of the system of capitalism contained in Bernstein's series of articles. Such myopia is a disease of many union writers and organizers, and likely the reason that unions have declined in both membership and influence.