class warfare

Poverty in the US hits a half-century high and Obama is accused by the right-wing of engaging in class-war with his proposals to raise taxes on those who earn more than a million a year. Both Obama and billionaire Buffet have been called "socialists" for suggesting such a course of action.

SOYMB came across this article (hidden away in the entertainments and media section) that discusses class in the United States.

In the years since the late 70s, journalists have been focused elsewhere. Like many historians, political scientists and sociologists, their reporting has been aimed at other great socioeconomic collisions: between men and women, black and white, gay and straight, religious and secular, immigrants and native-born Americans. The working class has no obvious lobbying group or advocate to bring its interests to the fore. Unions once played that role, but they've been in retreat over the same period.

"Americans have been uncomfortable for a long time talking about class. It's a very intense taboo," said Joan Williams, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law and author of "Reshaping The Work-Family Debate: Why Men and Class Matter." "We have this very strong self-image of equality and image that anyone can make it. The idea that there is a strong class system undercuts the claims we cherish most. Yet there is a strong class system in the U.S."

Public opinion surveys, even since the current economic calamity began, suggest a majority of the public hold an almost mystic faith in the upward mobility ideal. Around 3 percent of Americans are actually millionaires but in 2003, over 30% told Gallup that they expected to be millionaires at some point in their lives. A 2006 poll found that more than half of those surveyed believed “Almost anyone can get rich if they put their mind to it.” Americans are almost twice as likely as those in other advanced economies to believe that “people get rewarded for intelligence and skill.” At the same time, fewer than one in five say that coming from a wealthy family is “essential” or “very important” to getting ahead. The reality is that the single greatest predictor of how much an American child will earn in the future is how much his or her parents take home. An American in today’s workforce is just as likely to experience downward mobility as he or she is to move up in the world. Isabel Sawhill of the Brookings institution concluded, “At virtually every level, education in America tends to perpetuate rather than compensate for existing inequalities...access both to a quality preschool experience and to higher education continues to depend quite directly on family resources.”

It was Warren Buffet who famously said, "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."

An undeniably true statement.

Also adapted from Joshua Holland's article here