On September 7, 1986, noted writer and activist Barbara Ehrenreich asked a question in The New York Times Magazine: “Is the Middle Class Doomed?”
Describing a pattern of increased military spending, tax breaks for the affluent and profound disinvestment in people and infrastructure, the noted social critic heralded the emergence of a “Kmart-Bloomingdales” dual economy, divided into rich and poor, luxurious and cheap, abundance and struggle.
“Some economists,” wrote Ehrenreich, “have even predicted that the middle class, which has traditionally represented the majority of Americans and defined the nation’s identity and goals, will disappear altogether, leaving the country torn, like many third-world societies, between an affluent minority and a horde of the desperately poor.”
She quotes investment banker Felix Rohatyn: “A democracy, to survive, must at the very least appear to be fair. This is no longer the case in America.’’
This, I remind you, was during the Reagan years, before Bush, Clinton, Bush the Younger and Obama. Under Trump only the most hollowed out pretense of fairness remains.
The majority of us are debt-burdened, dying younger and trapped in work that offers little hope for the future.
In a new book, “The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy,” MIT professor emeritus Peter Temin states that only about 20 percent of us can be considered economically secure.
By applying a standard set of criteria first created to analyze economies in developing nations, Temin argues that America has officially joined the Third World. A review published by The Institute for New Economic Thinking breaks it down.
“[M]uch of the low-wage sector has little influence over public policy. Check. The high-income sector will keep wages down in the other sector to provide cheap labor for its businesses. Check. Social control is used to keep the low-wage sector from challenging the policies favored by the high-income sector. Mass incarceration — check. The primary goal of the richest members of the high-income sector is to lower taxes. Check. Social and economic mobility is low. Check.”
We have become two nations, says Temin. Those who enjoy privilege, stability and hope for the future who mostly work in the finance, technology and electronics sectors, and those who toil for about minimum wage or less.
The majority of us are debt-burdened, dying younger and trapped in work that offers little hope for the future.
Worse, the one means that we have toward achieving affluence — education — has become the prerogative of the privileged. The costs have risen out of most people’s reach, with access depending mostly upon prior privilege.
It’s like a reverse GI Bill. After World War II, this government-sponsored education opportunity for returning veterans created the greatest engine of class mobility this nation has ever seen. While these benefits were never equally accessible across race, for more than three decades increased access to education fed the growth of a robust middle class.
Those days are gone. Now, our economic policies mostly siphon wealth from bottom to top.
Racism makes it possible. This is where our homegrown division between rich and poor has the deepest roots.
This points to the second hard truth that lies at the bottom of radical inequality: Racism makes it possible. This is where our homegrown division between rich and poor has the deepest roots.
This year Forbes magazine described the state of the “huge and growing” racial wealth gap.
“Since 1983, black and latino families have seen their wealth fall considerably from $6,800 and $4,000 to just $1,700 and $2,000 respectively in 2013. Even though white households took a hit during the financial crisis, they still boasted a median wealth of $116,800 in 2013. The research projects that the gap will widen even further in the years ahead with black household wealth declining 30 percent from today by 2024. The median latino household will see their wealth fall 20 percent while white households will experience a five percent increase by that point.”
That 5 percent is a pyrrhic gain at best. “The desire to preserve the inferior status of blacks,” writes Temin, “has motivated policies against all members of the low-wage sector.”
In other words, the working class has been beaten nearly to death, and the weapon of choice is institutional racism.
Whenever an NFL player takes a knee, we should consider where our loyalties lie.
Tim Harris is the founding Director Real Change and has been active as a poor people’s organizer for more than two decades. Prior to moving to Seattle in 1994, Harris founded the Spare Change homeless newspaper in Boston in 1992 while working as Executive Director of Boston Jobs with Peace.
Wait, there's more. Check out articles in the full October 11 issue.