The questions that must be asked

[elfs]

Firedog Lake joins me in asking the questions that the press ought to be asking:

1. We had steeply progressive taxation in this country from World War I until the late '80s. In that period, the US economy became the most powerful in the world and the American middle class grew like none other in history. Was that "class warfare"?

2. Taxes are at historic lows for the top 1% and total tax levels are also at historic lows at a time when the country is facing a decaying infrastructure, closing schools and record numbers of American children are surviving on food stamps. Is that a problem?

3. The concentration of wealth at the top in this country hasn't been this pronounced since the 1920s. Is that a problem?

4. Studies show that Americans favor a much more equitable a distribution of wealth — akin to a country like Sweden. Is this belief rooted in resentment or "class warfare"?

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

#1 misses an important factor: After WWII, the US was the only industrialized nation that hadn't been leveled. That was the primary (if not sole) reason why the US dominated the world economy up until the 1970's. By then, the rest of the industrialized nations had recovered and caught up.

While that doesn't negate point #1, it does explain part of why the middle class was able to grow.


I have heard, however, that since the late 1960's, there has been a concerted project by the right-wing to convince the American public that Big Business is Good, that anything which threatens the absolute power of Big Business is Bad, that they do not deserve to have economic security of any sort, and that all government policy should benefit the wealthy and powerful only.

That, if it is true, would indeed be Class Warfare — by the wealthy, against everyone else.