There are those who contend that in America we should never talk about class because it is dangerous and divisive. They say that class does not exist in America because everyone is free to determine their own class. Does anyone really believe that a child born into the lower class has the same life chances as a child born into the upper class?

Whether we like it or not, the class system exists in America. We all make judgments every day about class based on a person’s occupation, clothing, speech patterns, educational level, residential location, etc. To deny the reality of class in America is to deny reality itself.

So why does the mention of our class system make some people so nervous? I suspect it’s because the recognition of class reveals the chasm between the American ideal that all people are created equal and the reality that, in fact, all people are not created equal. We want to believe that everyone has the same chances but our class system contradicts that belief. The unpleasant fact is that the class you are born into is a major determinant of your life chances.

Rather than pretend that class does not exist in America, we need to be asking why the upper class has so dramatically increased its wealth during the past seven years while the rest of us have been struggling to make ends meet. Today the top 5% of households owns over 60% of America’s wealth—more than the bottom 95% of households combined. The 400 wealthiest people in America are all billionaires with a combined worth of $1.29 trillion which is more than the total GDP of Canada. The newest member of the billionaires club, John Paulson, made his money from the subprime mortgage fiasco. The bottom 20% of Americans basically have zero wealth. A household in the middle has wealth of about $ 62,000 but when you compare this to the top 1% of household’s average wealth of over $18 million, you can see what a huge difference there is in distribution. Income and wealth today are more unevenly distributed among Americans than at any time since the Roaring 20’s. It is only when Americans realize that the Republicans have stacked the deck in favor of the upper class that we will see some fairness return to our economic system. We have been fooled far too long by the smokescreen propagated by the upper class that it is wrong to talk about class in America. We are warned by the upper class that talk about class warfare is dangerous. The only danger is that people will wake up and realize that the upper class has been playing us for fools. While the Republicans were distracting us with phantom issues like gay marriage, the wealthy elite was busy getting bills passed that made them even wealthier. The fact is that the upper class has been waging a very successful war on the rest of us since they put President Bush into office.

It’s time to start fighting back with the most effective ammunition we have—our votes. We need to start voting to protect our own interests instead of foolishly voting to protect the interests of the class we wished we were in. Americans have been dreaming about becoming wealthy themselves and then voting on the basis of that dream. People have been fooled into believing that if they vote to protect the interests of the wealthy they will somehow become wealthy themselves. But voting for those who cut taxes on the upper class and who want to dramatically increase upper class wealth by eliminating the estate tax and the capital gains tax only means that the rich will become richer while the rest of us become poorer. It’s time for working class Americans to use the ballot box to defeat the servants of the upper class and to elect people who will work for us.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_joe_park_080228_class_warfare_in_ame.htm

I have a better idea.

Public education is free. I don't care if you are born into a situation where your household doesn't have a single cent to it's name.

This fallacy that if you are poor you have no option but to stay poor is BS.

For the last 3 years, my state of Maryland, has ranked #1 in the country in public education.

January 10, 2011|By Liz Bowie, The Baltimore Sun

"For the third year in a row, Maryland's public schools have been ranked No. 1 in the nation by a leading education newspaper, which gives the state high marks for its policies, the preparation of its youngest children and overall achievement."

"What makes Maryland stand out is that it is on the one hand a strong achiever and has shown improvement, but it is also a real leader in terms of policy," said Christopher Swanson, vice president of editorial projects in education at Education Week, which produced the rankings. He said some states that have high student achievement have coasted, but Maryland has kept the pressure on schools to improve."

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-01-10/news/bs-md-maryland-schools-ranked-number-20110110_1_maryland-schools-rank-mike-petrilli-student-achievement

No one can call the city of Baltimore a bastion of upper class families that because of their rich social setting do better than the rest of the country.

You address the problems of poverty by offering kids incentives to succeed. This culture that we live in promotes everything but the importance of education. What clothes you wear, how good you are at sports and how big your house is means more in this absurd society.

Until that nonsense changes and parents push their kids to understand that their education is their top priority we are going to see an expansion in the void between the haves and have nots.

It has nothing to do with who you vote for or any other political nonsense.

Oh if only the facts matched your fantasy.

"There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning."
— Warren Buffett
No word yet from Paris Hilton

Yes, we have classes. And yes, being born into a poorer family definately has disadvantages in housing, education, employment, opportunity, etc etc etc

To comment on education, just because we have free public education, it doesn't mean that it is equal! Anyone that wants to see the stark difference between public schools should come to Michigan and spend a day in Detroit Public Schools and a day in Rochester public schools. And, take a hard look around, and see really where the money for public education comes from.

Keep playing the politics game and see where it gets you.. Nowhere

That is the mentality that creates the situation we are in.

Oh look at them... because their school is green and ours in red we can't do as well as them.

Ridiculous...

Classic right wing response allways blame the victim. Yes its their fault they were born poor and rich kids have the same chance of being poor as a poor kid. ...........Ridiculous...

Are Financial and Political Leaders Suffering Economically Like the Workers?
"US corporations took in $1.659 trillion in the third quarter [of 2010], breaking records going back 60 years, according to a Commerce Department report. . . On November 30, five days after the Thanksgiving holiday, unemployment benefits will expire for 1.2 million workers due to Congressional inaction. By Christmas and the New Year, this figure will swell to 2 million. The fate of these workers and the several million children who depend on them, tossed out without cash income into the worst job market in seven decades, is of little consequence to the millionaires and multi-millionaires who populate Congress." Source

A new study shows members of Congress saw a boost in personal wealth as the U.S. economy suffered the worst of the economic recession. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, lawmakers' personal wealth increased an average of 16 percent between 2008 and 2009. The number of millionaires rose to 261, nearly half the total members of Congress. The median wealth of a House member topped $765,000, while the average for a senator was more than $2.3 million.
http://www.hermes-press.com/class_warfare.htm

Yes, we used to joke (or half-joke, anyway) that hey, next thing you know, Republicans are going to start demanding a return legalized child labor.

It's not a joke anymore.

As Ian Millhiser reports at Think Progress, Utah's newly elected Republican Senator, Mike Lee -- the Tea Partier who unseated Robert Bennett -- posted a video of a lecture he gave last week on the Constitution. It was quite a lecture: Not only does Lee reveal himself to be a far-right "Tenther" -- a conspiracist approach to the Constitution borne out of the Patriot/militia movement of the 1990s -- but as someone who believes child-labor laws are unconstitutional, too:

Congress decided it wanted to prohibit [child labor], so it passed a law—no more child labor. The Supreme Court heard a challenge to that and the Supreme Court decided a case in 1918 called Hammer v. Dagenhardt. In that case, the Supreme Court acknowledged something very interesting — that, as reprehensible as child labor is, and as much as it ought to be abandoned — that’s something that has to be done by state legislators, not by Members of Congress. [...]

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/it-was-inevitable-new-tea-partying-r

It starts so young. Its really not about the color of the school but ECONOMICS and ENVIRONMENT have alot to do with it.

Let me explain. If you have children, you know that they learn behavior and beliefs from their exposures to others. They also learn reality right in their own home. THIS is a fact. Children learn reality from THEIR situation and THEIR home.

So, if you start out in a situation where everyday all you see is poverty and folks struggling and drugs and alcohol and a media that says those people(whom you live amongst) never go anywhere , dont amount to anything, or WANT to amount to anything and its THEIR FAULT. You couple that with who in that childs experience they see as being successful(entertainers, athletes, drug dealers, pimps, hustlers), the chances that upper class 'success' will seem any more real to them than dr seuss is VERY slim.

To the contrary, if you start out where EVERYDAY you see people around who have lawns and vehicles and are living what you learn is the 'american dream' and you see people showing RESPECT to your parents and showing RESPECT to the people in your environment and a media saying people like those deserve RESPECT because they earned it. You couple that with who in that childs experience is successful(their parents, their neighbors, authors, businessmen, etc,,,), the chance that upper class 'success' will seem real to them is VERY HIGH.

,,,thats the environment part

NOW The economics part.

Public education IS free, but USUALLY not equal. USUALLY the best public education WILL be in those areas where the most funds are available for those schools. Those schools will USUALLY be in areas that are condusive to being productive(with things like churches and libraries, clean , minimal to drug free streets, as opposed to liquor stores and video game shops). Then, add to that disparity in the QUALITY of one public school from another, the pretty universal need for PAPER in determining what OPPORTUNITIES become available to you in this globally competitive world. High school diploma is not really going to do much alone to secure success in this environment. So we then look to COLLEGE and UNIVERSITY access.

IF that impoverished child has the good fortune to DENY the odds and get through the PUBLIC school system with a good education and the belief in themself and their own value and ability, they might get into either a Community college or a state university. From there, if they choose the right major, their chance of 'success' increases.

If that unimpoverished child gets through their (usually superior) public or private education, they will be able to go to whatever school they wish often times because of the NETWORK they were already born into where word of mouth and 'who one knows'(ie, whose neighbors one had or whose friends and relatives ones parents had) can do a great deal to BOOST their acceptance. Once into a school, that network they were BORN into also is more likely to continue to be an additional resource they will have to send them and keep them on a road to success.

Money is the great unequalizer and everyone doesnt have an EQUAL shot at it anymore than everyone has an EQUAL shot at winning a marathon. Training and what one is BORN with have alot to do with winning a sport and likewise environment and what one is BORN into has alot to do with acquiring 'wealth' or becoming part of the 'upper class'.



There are indeed no rules which are absolute. But denying the HUGE crutch that one has being born in an impoverished environment , to me, is like denying how much more difficult it is for a one legged man to win a race against others without that same affliction.

Thank you for your great post.

John Kerry Serves Up a Reality Check


John Kerry gave a speech last week at the Center for American Progress that should become the marching song for every liberal in this country. He was clear: The last 10 years have cost us too much, and if the hyper-partisan tone doesn't change to one of true concern for the direction of this country, we will cede any chance to lead to others.

He hits it all: Infrastructure, energy, debt, climate change. Every point. The one that hit home for me was when he talked about where we might have been, had Bush and the Republicans not unwound progress made during the Clinton administration.

Here's an example. We talk about how the Clinton tax rates generated a surplus, but we stop there. We don't talk about the fact that if the Clinton tax rates had remained in effect, the entire national debt would have been paid off by 2012. Imagine what a difference that would have made in today's dialogue. And more importantly, why aren't we hammering this home every single time one of those self-righteous Republican buffoons stands up and talks about how our national debt is killing the country?

Kerry points out that we would be at a point where our financial position would be at it's strongest point ever. What would that have meant when (or if) the bottom fell out of the economy? Most assuredly, we wouldn't have to be speaking of debt retirement and austerity.

We need to start going there. This shouldn't be swept under the rug. I can't recommend this highly enough. Take an hour out of your day and watch Kerry's speech. He really hits hard on the cost of NOT investing in the country and how it puts us behind on a global basis every single day.

http://crooksandliars.com/

Why have a victim mentality?? I am poor and my daughter got a 40000 dollar scholarship to Allbright In PA which is an excellent school......she was invited by many other colleges like Penn State and Seton Hall as well. She attended public schools all her life. She graduated from a public school in the State of Delaware. Many kids propel themselves beyond the public school system every year. The ones that choose not to, hold on to that victim mentality because you people putting it into their heads....we never told her she couldn't ....we always told her she can and will succeed.......and even though I do not have a penny to my name......guess what....she is.....

Why have a victim mentality?? I am poor and my daughter got a 40000 dollar scholarship to Allbright In PA which is an excellent school......she was invited by many other colleges like Penn State and Seton Hall as well. She attended public schools all her life. She graduated from a public school in the State of Delaware. Many kids propel themselves beyond the public school system every year. The ones that choose not to, hold on to that victim mentality because you people putting it into their heads....we never told her she couldn't ....we always told her she can and will succeed.......and even though I do not have a penny to my name......guess what....she is.....

well, the harder he tries, the better the chance at him winning the race... if he doesn't try, he will never win...

if people want to spend their time whining about what they don't have instead of trying, well, you see what happens

no doubt, and it is learning to try hard, in fact HARDER than those who already have advantages that leads to success

it is not necessary to deny that its not EQUAL to do so

congratulations on your daughter but guesse were that scholarship money came from?

"We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values... when machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
--Martin Luther King, Jr. April 4, 1967

i like that one,,,

Yeah it came from donations to the college fund she received from a wealthier class that rewards those that don't give into the victim mentality mindset and achieve despite their surrounding and if she can do it so can others.....it came from hard work....it came from determination.....and she keeps it because of those same things......and she will succeed because she has a successfuly attitude and the backbone to do so