Wisconsin is making the battle lines clear in America's hidden class war

[madmom]

You can tell a great deal about a nation's anxieties and aspirations by the discrepancy between reality and popular perception. Polls last year showed that in the US 61% think the country spends too much on foreign aid. This makes sense once you understand that the average American is under the illusion that 25% of the federal budget goes on foreign aid (the real figure is 1%).....


.....When it comes to class, Americans have long seen themselves as potentially rich and perpetually middling. A Pew survey in 2008 revealed that 91% believe they are either middle class, upper-middle class or lower-middle class. Relatively few claim to be working class or upper class, intimating more of a cultural aspiration than an economic relationship. Meanwhile, a Gallup poll in 2005 showed that while only 2% of Americans described themselves as "rich", 31% thought it very likely or somewhat likely they would "ever be rich".

But trends and ongoing events are forcing a reappraisal of that self-image. Social mobility has stalled; wages have been stagnant for a generation. It is in this light that the growing resistance to events in Wisconsin must be understood. The hardline Republican governor, Scott Walker, has pledged to remove collective bargaining rights from public sector unions and cut local government workers' health benefits and pension entitlements.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/27/republican-attack-unions-class-wisconsin

[Xipe Totec]

1. And all our children are above average. n/t

[Cal33]

7. "And all our children are above average." How very true - even

though the IQ of half the population is below 100, and the other half is above 100.

[inna]

2. nothing "hidden" about it anymore.

ETA: thankfully, maybe - just maybe! - people are starting to wake up to that reality. it's too early to tell just yet.

[Cal33]

6. In the meantime the 90% Republican-owned news media are doing

their best to delay that general awakening with their lies as much as possible. And
they have been quite effective so far.

[polichick]

3. "Democratic politicians, funded by both unions and corporations,...

...pretend not to take sides, casting the national conversation not in terms of bosses and workers or wages and profits but of rich and poor.

The problem with this, explains Michael Zweig, the director of the centre for the study of working-class life at the State University of New York, is that "most people want to be rich and most of them don't know what rich is. If you put class in terms of power, you start to get to the source of the problem."

Leaders like Walker are making it clear which side of the class divide they stand on. A growing number of Americans, it seems, have begun to understand that this is precisely the problem and are discovering the source of their own power."


Good article - k&r

[Lifelong Protester]

4. It's CLASS WARFARE all the way,

K & R for good article, and I will repeat what I always say

WAKE UP, AMERICA!!

BTW, I think we have.

[RedCloud]

5. And when the rich go underground to hide from asteroid...

We will weld the doors shut behind them!