Class Warfare: The Middle Class Demands A Fair Share

After eight years of the Bush Presidency, the American middle class has been taken hostage and told they will lose everything (trickle down financial ruin) if they do not bail out the big banks, investment firms and insurance companies. Bush & Cheney have perfected the panic mode wealth transfer that Naomi Klein describes so well in "The Shock Doctrine." This multi-trillion-dollar parting gift is their payback to the upper class that helped orchestrate their election.

Capitalism for the middle class, socialism for the rich... indeed! This is what you get when corrupt Republicans and the Corporate sociopathic personality rules the economy.

Will the middle class in the United States ever learn? Less then 20 years ago we paid over 125 billion for the Savings & Loan scandal / bailout. Caused by eight years of "Reaganonics" -- deregulation, greed, huge budget deficits and upper class tax cuts -- our current "credit crisis" scandal in many ways mirrors that one.

Where did the billions of dollars lost by the banks go? Did the money just evaporate? No. Most of it went to huge CEO and executive payouts to expand the obscene wealth of the upper class. Someone has to pay for the super yachts, extravagant parties, multiple mansions and other extravagances of the rich. If you want to see where your money is going, just tune into "Lifestyles of the Super Rich." How ironic that the same institutions which have been feeding off the middle class like leeches for decades (via unreasonable fees, large interest rate spreads, insurance rate hikes, hyped-up investment schemes, etc.), are now begging for more blood money.

Up until now, there has been an absence of any significant economic class backlash here in America, even as the wealth gap between rich and poor has increased more than at any time in our history. In spite of Bush having created tax policies that favored higher earners while real incomes dropped among the middle class, the majority of Americans cast their vote for the "candidate of the wealthy" yet again in 2004. It appears, finally, they won't do the same by voting for a Republican POTUS in 2008. Obama's middle class advocacy message is clearly resonating in these tough economic times.

Middle class Americans need to ask themselves and their government: are these giveaways and bailouts the only way to stimulate and save the economy? The middle class, via our representatives, needs to exercise its newfound power over insurance companies, Wall Street and bankers: you want us to bail you out? Here are some of OUR demands:

1) Corporations and the rich need to pay higher taxes, period. We are tired of hearing that higher corporate and upper class taxes will increase the jobless rate and slow the economy.

Even Warren Buffet says that our current tax system unfairly puts more of the tax burden on the working class than the rich. The rich pay more taxes as a total collected, but much less of a percentage as the middle class.

Mr. Buffet goes on to say, "There's class warfare, all right," Mr. Buffett said, "but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."

2) We want tougher regulations on the insurance and banking industries along with fair mortgage lending practices, IE: don't swallow up the interest rate spread between the Federal lending rate and the actual consumer Mortgage rate, pass the cheaper money along to the end consumer. Plus, do away with unreasonable closing fees, etc. It's time for Wallstreet, insurance company's and banks to forgo some of the extreme profits we have seen in the past and pass savings along to their clients.

3) Middle class tax cut and small business tax cuts. It's time for some "trickle up" economics.

What would be some of your demands to the banks, insurance companies and investment firms in return for you bailing them out? What other ways can we stimulate and strengthen the economy instead of simply throwing money at the banking system? Please comment below...

Comments

[llee611838]

I would like it if credit card companies could not change terms on the consumer. I know of no other contract where only one party can change the terms at will.

I would like to see some limits placed on punitive interest rates on credit card debt. When the banks got in over their heads they needed assistance. When the banks customers get in over their heads, they get a kick in the head.

I would like to have politicians stop saying that it would be terrible to have a health care system like Canada and England (as McCain did in this debate.) I lived in England and had very good care, had very short waits to get an appointment-- here I've had to wait more than a week to get into see my doctor. I received prescription medicine I needed for free. In America, I am one of the 47 million without health insurance, and I can't afford to go to the doctor when sick. Would it be terrible to have universal health care? I've had both and universal health care is better.

Also, McCain talked about "spreading the wealth around" as though it were a bad thing. Isn't that supposed to be how capitalism works at its best? Isn't it supposed to create wealth for the most people? And wouldn't a strong, vibrant middle class be a good measure of our national health? Since when is spreading wealth a negative?

[nualak]

Here's one example of the worker's being taken advantage of. The car manufacturers are supposed to get a $250 million/trillion bailout, right. A private equity fund named CERBERUS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT owns 80% of Chrysler and 51% controlling ownership of GMAC. They also owned AEGIS MORTGAGE. They made bad decisions when they bought up those "losing" companies, which they then purge of employees,etc., make them profitable and then sell them off. As far as AEGIS goes, they announced to their employees they could no longer cover their health care costs, so they dropped the plan. Two month's later they laid off a percentage of their worker's, who were then left high and dry without health care, as the law says, if you no longer supply health care to your worker's, they cannot buy into COBRA. Then they sold the company. They are being sued by their former employees. Good luck.

CERBERUS is now looking for low interest loans or bailout for Chrysler from the government. This is a private equity fund owner who refuses to divulge any information about the financial workings of the company and guess who the Chairman of the company is - JOHN SNOW, and guess who else works for them - DAN QUALE . He runs one of their international units.

[FdeBear]

We can do something about this American feudal system: realize we are being robbed; throw the thieves out of Washington - purge the neocon republicans; organize for our own survival; be selective about our consumerism- conduct acts of nonviolent retaliation.

[topkatnc]

I wonder if doing away the cap on payroll so that the rich pay the same percentage as everyone else does help?

[shystar]

I am grateful for this observation by the author. No society can survive without a properly paid, informed working class. There are many periods in history that supports this 1789 French Revolution, The great Depression, The 1980s Latin America Economic Crisis.

We in the modern era seem not to look back to history to inform us, however one theorist to read on class wars is the classical work of Karl Marx. He looked at man and his relationship to the factors of production and the tensions that can result. In the U.S. in these hard economic times there may not be a revolution that is violent like 1789 however the class war is evident as people object to bail out of the upper class. The revolt will surely be seen in the states that are in economic decline and punishment will be who wins the general election, and state elections.

[LeftRight]

Reminds me of an old joke. The owner of a new building to be constructed shows up at the site and talks to the foreman. The foreman asks him whether he wants the building made from the bottom up, or from the top down. "From the bottom up, of course!!" answers the owner. "All right guys," shouts the foreman, "Come on down, we gotta start again!"

[WorkingClass]

Thank you for having the courage to at least try to talk about class in America. You have mentioned a middle and an upper class. Is there a third "low" class that you are not talking about? Would that be the majority of Americans - the WORKING CLASS? What we have now is not class war because the working class is not fighting back. What we have now is merely oppression and as you point out, a massive transfer of wealth to the ruling class.

In any case, "we" are not in a position to demand anything. "We" demanded that "our" government not provide the money for the recent bail out and guess what. "We" were ignored. We have not only been robbed, we have been disenfranchised. We are no longer represented in the government. As matters stand we are serfs and will remain so until we take back "our" government.

EVERY elected official who takes money from ANY lobbyist is corrupt and must be removed from office by any means necessary. This will require a true opposition party. We will remain serfs until we have an American Labor Party.

[wideout179]

Thank you. We need to take back what is ours! Throw these damn banks into the harbor, we don't need 'em. And toss the lobbyists in there with them. The true class warfare is the rich vs. everyone. They want to outsource ALL middle-class jobs and consign us all to minimum wage. If we don't end the takeover of the US by the richest 1%, we are not going to have anything left. We have to do this- the gov't is no help.

[ArkansasAngie]

Class warfare? Certainly a war that has no winner.

Too bad tax policy isn't a simply as many think.

The real issue is our country's move to a consumer nation vs. producer nation.

If you tilt the tax code to further hurt business, you will put more out of business and thus increase unemployment.

Now would be a good time to seriously look at rewriting the tax law.

The issue that needs to be focused on right now -- paying the bailout back. NOt a word is spoken by either McCain or OBama. Both are too busy pandering to worry about reality.

And the reality is that with the massive printing of money by the government, the only outcome will be inflation.

Of course inflation is the taxation of choice by most government employees like senators and congressional representatives.

[LeftRight]

The problem with your post is that you've fallen for the idea that our country can have any value without manufacturing. Consumption only will fail, just like production without any consumption will!

[wideout179]

No, class warfare concievably could have a winner- everyone. I'm not advocating communism, but a more even income stratum, along with harsher tariffs and trade protections, would be beneficial to everyone. The tax code is beneficial to businesses NOW- and look what's happening. What we really need to do is protect American businesses and workers, not the companies that will use their extra profits from a more 'beneficial' tax code to ship more jobs to the Far East. And about paying the bailout back- just who should do that if not the busineeses who are the recipients of the money? C'mon, pull your head out of your supply-side.