View source for How Class War Has Impoverished The Middle And Lower Classes

<!-- you can have any number of categories here -->
[[Category:Mike Huben]]
[[Category:Class War]]
{{DES | des = Gradual changes in wages, opportunity, debt, risk, tax policy and other factors have badly hurt the vast majority of families over the past 40 years. | show=}}
<!-- insert wiki page text here -->

This is a quick and incomplete list of the issues.

Assume for a moment that you represent the upper class, or even better the 1%, and that you want to get even richer.  Where can the wealth come from, except from those who are earning less, increasing inequality?  How can you change society legally so that more money flows to you?  How can you redistribute from the poor to the rich?

There are two answers.  One is to go where the money is.  Two is to redistribute costs so that you no longer pay them.  Let's look at how the first-class citizens (the large corporations and the extremely rich) have done this over the past 40 years.

== Keep The Gains From Productivity Improvements ==
While productivity has doubled in the past 40 years, median family real income has stayed almost constant.  See: {{Link|The Most Important Economic Chart}}.

== Lower Wages ==
Prevent and eliminate unionization.  Keep high unemployment levels.  Oppose minimum wage and increases to minimum wage despite inflation.  Keep unemployment benefits as harsh and skimpy as possible.  Encourage high debt (student loans for example) so that workers have no choice but to take any job at any wage.  Oppose overtime and other worker rights legislation.

Even though there has been a huge increase in hours worked per family (due to the huge increase in working women), median family real income has stayed almost constant.  This means that real wages have decreased as much as hours worked has increased.

== Shift Taxes From The Rich To The Rest ==
There has been a major, anti-progressive trend in taxation, with corporations and the extremely wealthy now paying historically low tax rates.  Reduce or even better eliminate inheritance taxes.  Reduce taxes on unearned income, and increase taxes on earned income.  Tax havens.  Tax loopholes.  Subsidies.  Shop for low-tax states.

== Shift Risks From The Rich To The Rest ==
Changes in bankruptcy laws move creditors to the front of the line and workers to the end.  Oppose safety and liability laws.

== Position The Rich To Siphon Off Money From The Rest ==
Rather than expand Social Security, 401K's were established to allow financial giants to tap retirement savings for ridiculous fees.  Rather than continue state subsidy of college education, saddle students and their families with enormous loans that they can't even escape even with bankruptcy, so that lots of interest can be collected.  Variable credit card rates can rise to lock you into perpetual credit card debt when you are most vulnerable.

== Privatize The Benefits And Socialize The Costs ==
Sell off public property and oppose environmental regulations.

Gradual changes over a 40 year period are relatively difficult to notice without the aid of statistics.  Individuals notice their own personal trajectory, but don't know that it is more than just their problem.

<!-- DPL has problems with categories that have a single quote in them.  Use these explicit workarounds. -->
<!-- otherwise, we would use {{Links}} and {{Quotes}}  -->
{{List|title=How Class War Has Impoverished The Middle And Lower Classes|links=true}}
{{Quotations|title=How Class War Has Impoverished The Middle And Lower Classes|quotes=true}}