the great thing about America is that there is no organized resentment of the rich. instead, there are all these confused middle class people who buy into arguments which actually benefit the elites and hurt themselves (the middle class). thus the middle class does the rich's work--not just the labor, but also the political work. this is a great benefit to the rentier class in America vs similar countries with large income disparities like Brazil. here, the middle class' willingness to be intellectual lackeys of the rich allows for low taxation and the socialization of police-state costs--e.g., the incredibly large prison population in the US, which reduces the security costs to the rich and allows them greater freedom than they would otherwise have, given their enormous theft of national wealth which would instill class resentment in other societies.
unfortunately, even the complacent, poorly educated middle class of the US is likely to sit up and take notice as their real incomes decline in absolute terms, due to the globalization of capital and the widespread availability of extremely cheap labor elsewhere. the rentier class will enjoy widening profit rates on nearly free labor even as the middle class is gutted in the US.
in the long run, this will make it difficult for the middle class to continue to bear an outsized burden in the tax system, as at present. the greedy rentier class will of course not be interested in footing the bill, and thus America is likely to increasingly resemble Brazil on the outside as it now does on the inside.
while hardly conceivable at the present time, with the most ridiculous rich-favoring tax system among developed countries and the greatest socialized police state benefitting the rich scumbags, and led by a half-wit who is himself but a lackey of his rentier masters, i believe in our lifetimes class will start to matter again. |
