Category Archives: Economics/Class Relations
African-Americans, low income people, disproportionately hit by pandemic Reply
“It Doesn’t Get Any Worse Than This” Reply
Kulinksi nails it.
Unemployment claims exceed economists worst warnings Reply
RONA Updates: New Projections, Lots of Poverty, Latest Data Reply
This Is How Populists Can Beat Corporate Establishment Reply
Hill reporter Reid Wilson: Why we need Roosevelt jobs program in fight against coronavirus Reply
No, not a Roosevelt. A Lucy Parsons.
Let’s Lynch The Landlord 1
Oh, we can. You know we can.
Landlords jacking up rents on poor residents in spite of eviction moratorium Reply
LA orders masks for all, 1/3 of renters didn’t make rent in April Reply
Will Cuomo really replace Joe Biden as the Dem nominee? Reply
The neoliberal “Wall Street-suburban coalition” may need a new front-man if Biden falters. Andrew Cuomo is a Clintonesque douchebag (e.g. class warfare against the poor, obstructing criminal justice reform) who just happened to be the governor of a state that just happened to get hit hard by COVID-19. Cuomo is actually to the right of DiBlasio (who himself is a faux leftist neoliberal stooge). And DiBlasio actually sided with Amazon during Bezos’ conflict with Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez (who has also become a neoliberal stooge).
Ben Shapiro: Don’t Talk About Homelessness Or Infrastructure During Pandemic Reply
The Republican Party ultimately stands for only three things: advancing the class interests of the right-wing of the plutocracy (the old-bourgeoisie and the Sunbelt industries), advancing the war-profiteering of the military-industrial complex, and advancing the expansionist objectives of Israel. Guys like Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin are merely mouthpieces for the Republican elites, who put on the veneer of a faux conservative/libertarian hybrid (a scam known as “fusionism” that was cultivated by the National Review crowd in the 1960s and was essentially the strategic/propaganda line of the GOP from the Reagan era until Trump). Trumpism combined with the shrinking size of the Republican constituency and the economic decline of the WASP working class has pushed some Republicans toward faux populism, much to the frustration of these unreconstructed fusionists like Shapiro.
Mark Levin: US Is Turning Into Venezuela! Reply
Mark Levin is actually partially correct in that the US is now an English-speaking version of a Latin American banana republic.
Charlie Kirk: Covid Bailout Shows Medicare For All Is “Perfectly Affordable” Reply
LOL. Right on target.
Black Americans Hit Hardest By RONA, Could Trump Usher In Progressive Causes? A Convo w/Niko House Reply
Grocery clerks, essential workers begin to die with no extra pay Reply
Why This Crisis Is Destroying Millennials, Generation Z Reply
SHOCK POLL: Coronavirus Class Divide Revealed Reply
AOC’s Subservience To Pelosi & Party Exposed Reply
Not Just Forty Acres and a Mule, but the Whole Damn Plantation Reply
Tim Patton offers some thoughtful insights in the comments section (see here) with my response reposted below:
I agree with just about everything you said. The “stimulus” is functioning pretty much the way the welfare state generally functions with loads of corporate welfare, a little something for those in the middle, and peanuts for those on the bottom.
Although a disagreement I have with orthodox libertarians is similar to a disagreement I have with Marxists. I consider the state to be more than just the political government proper (elected officials, appointed bureaucrats, state security forces, etc) and I consider the ruling class (Marx) or power elite (C. Wright Mills) to be more than just those who control the means of production. Elite theory, as well as studies of power dynamics generally, offer a more complete picture I think.
Where orthodox libertarians and I would probably disagree on the present crisis is that while I agree that the “stimulus” is really just a ruling class looting spree, it’s also true that at present we have a state-imposed medical martial law which has generated a government-induced depression. I don’t think the pandemic is the government’s fault and, state or no state, quarantines may be necessary during pandemics, even in a world of nothing but Fourierist utopian colonies or Rothbardian private communities. But the bottom line is that the state still created and maintained the systemic framework of state-capitalism (or inherited it from past regimes) and the crisis has escalated the suffering caused by the system.
Therefore, class-based reparations are legitimate and warranted. Not just forty acres and a mule, but the whole damn plantation.
GOP Out-Flanks Corporate Dems AGAIN On Single-Payer, Worker Protections Reply
Saager refers to the Democrats as a “suburban -Wall Street” coalition. Yes.
Victor Davis Hanson — The New Old World Order Reply
In this interview from 2010, uber-imperialist, warmongering, neocon Victor Davis Hanson admits that the USA is a plutocracy, which he thinks is a good thing because it means we lack the aristocratic traditions of Europe. Now THAT is a true bourgeois apologist! An unapologetic defender of capitalist class rule and liberal imperialism, in opposition to the traditional Western elites, but against the Left. Very 19th century. Refreshing, actually, as opposed to the usual “right-wing conservative” American dumbasses who claim the ruling class doesn’t exist.
