The Winner Take All Society

I hope you've been following the NYTimes is running a series on Class Matters in America.

This comes against the backdrop of Bush's re-shuffling of the social contract, where government's interaction with the wealthy favors them much more, and helps to preserve their wealth and keep it over generations. Bush has decreased taxes for the wealthy, such that now, everyone paying over $10M pays a lower *fraction* of their indcome in taxes than those at $100K (a regressive tax, people). And, by doing away with estate taxes, wealth will now be inherited, meaning future generations need worry less about meritocracy -- a return to demands for the Gentleman's Cs in classes at Yale.

Since World War II, the US has given a very nice deal to the working class and the middle class -- indeed, the middle class has dominated society and politics for half a century. To the extent that the wealthy determine the direction of politics, you can see that, now that the Cold War is over, the need for all those working people is somewhat diminished. Thus, the social contract which offered respect to these classes is going to be adjusted. This is to say, the heyday of the middle and working class is over. Now is the time to be rich -- and not just a little rich, but extremely rich. Welcome to the age of hegemony, where the winners dominate and rule over those weak enough to be dominated and ruled.

Thus, the political trends favoring the wealthy established under Bush will continue, and deepen. And why wouldn't they? The very words "class warfare", thrown about by Republicans at any Democrat who suggests that a regressive tax systsem is unfair, sting sufficiently to discredit the argument, regardless of the merits. Within our own generation, it will be much harder to retire as a member of the middle class, and the middle class will be leaving much less to their children.