Thoughts
Something that is very much on my mind at the moment:
Middle-class class-consciousness.
It basically shakes out like this: we hear a lot about how the American middle class is getting squeezed, and maybe even disappearing. This is often presented as something of a fait accompli. Yet a couple of factors, easily illustrated by early 20th century political movements, lead me to believe that if this is in fact happening, it is essentially a voluntary process.
First, is numbers. In the common, leftist-rooted version of this narrative (the concerns of which I agree with, just not the construction) it is presented as a question of numbers vs. money. The middle class has more people, but the capitol holders who are attempting to push them back into the sea of working-class wage slavery control the money. But if the presidency’s of the Roosevelt’s taught us anything, its that if numbers aren’t winning a political argument, its because you’re just not using them effectively. The middle class out numbers the people who are supposedly trying to do them harm (not that I don’t believe that there is a conflict between the middle and upper classes, just that I tend to think you should never look for a conspiracy where institutional bias provides an equally adequate explanation) by at least 10-1. You cannot possibly convince me that so numerically superior a grouping is incapable winning back a concession or two. If its not happening, its because they’re not trying. And just wait, their position gets even stronger.
My second reason why the middle class can only be described as enjoying being pushed around has more to do with their fundamental economic identity than their demographics. To wit: if someone is truly middle class, and not just highly-paid working class, it is because they have ownership of some amount of capital, human or physical, which enables them to be an independent engine of wealth production. They may chose to attach themselves to a larger corporation of individuals in the name of reliable income, but that doesn’t change the fundamental distinction in question: if you are truly middle-class, it is because you are a non-fungible worker. That means that you have bargaining power. It means that even if the top 1% of Americans control 42% of American wealth, the next 9% are the autonomous engines for the creation of that wealth. If they decide to stop playing, you can’t just grab a bunch of scabs from the bottom of the economic heap and swap them in. If you could, they’d have figured out a way to do it already.
So whats my point? Not really sure. I don’t really identify with the middle class, and their fate is their own problem, but I just wanted to point out that if they wanted to regain control of the political and economic direction of the country, the tools to do so are easily within their grasp, they just lack a little organization.
