Our present global economic and political system is
concentrating wealth and slowly eliminating the middle class. Serfs don't act
like bourgeoisie or yeomen. They don't care because a serf is all they'll ever
be. The system which is bringing this about is touted as THE Christian system
by the Christo-American intelligentsia, which is largely comprised of people
within the middle class. The system has to be, because they have identified it
as theologically orthodox. The irony is (I would argue) they have identified
this position as Christian not due to exegesis, but because of social values
stemming from their middle class status. And yet it is this system, this very
economic model which has placed their social standing in jeopardy.
It's as if they are tying their own hands, cutting their own
throats. Capitalism is nothing more than the Biblical system of economics we
have been told by many. These same folks reject with hostility what might be
called Global Capitalism, or even domestic 'Crony' Capitalism, but the
protestations are vain. Capitalism is never static, it must grow and advance or
die. The idea that men, especially fallen ones are going to ever be content
with the wealth and power they have is not a Christian understanding of
humanity or economics. Men will always seek new avenues, new realms to conquer.
When the local realm is not enough, they go national, and eventually and
inevitably international.
Government and infrastructure are essential for a society to
function. Is it any surprise the wealthy will find ways to profit from it? That
they will find ways to make their profits essential to the maintenance of
society? Greed knows no boundaries. The love of money is the root of all kinds
of evil. Capitalism without some serious restraint is nothing more than the
systemized vindication and institutionalization of the love of money. It
devolves and degenerates into wealth for wealth's sake. And to survive it must
defeat others, it must crush those underneath. It must exploit. Its apologists
argue otherwise, but they live in an ivory-tower dream land. The facts, and
history are very much against them.
Capitalism it is asserted, built the middle class. There is
some truth to this, although other societies have also built a middling-class
without this system. Even Feudalism was not so cut and dry as it often
presented in text books. None of these systems are. With the rise of town
economics, something like a middle class developed in the Middle Ages.
Capitalism in granting social transformative power to the
entrepreneur, can provide a check to state power-acquisition. A lack of
Capitalism it could be argued helped fuel the absolute monarchy you saw in
places like Tsarist Russia. All these questions are complicated and each
situation is different.
The more I reflect on the American situation, the more I've
come to realize the American golden economic age of the 1950's and 60's was
unsustainable. It was destroyed by greed, both Corporate and Labour. But it
also was a temporary situation. The war had destroyed global competition for a
generation. It was only a matter of time. So while there is a historical
precedent for some notion of a middling-class... the American middle class, its
standard of living, and much else that has gone along with it, is really
something fairly new and is potentially proving to be a short-lived construct.
The divide is returning.
In Europe, the middle class has been in part engineered and institutionally
secured. Now under the strain of austerity they will soon discover whether or
not the collective has the strength to stand against the desires and wants of
the individual, whether or not the still present inequities of their regulated
Capitalism are too much to bear.
Britain has never had quite the same scope of Middle Class
as is found in America. There are other issues. One of them is space! Americans
visiting England cannot but be shocked at the population density and the way
people are packed into the urban areas. This has curtailed the extravagance
found in American suburbia.
Britain has a middle class, but I guess I would try and argue it has always been a bit smaller, more constrained, and far less stable. The post-war social safety net has probably helped hold their society together in many ways. For some reason Americans will actually tolerate more wealth inequality. We are a nation of very rich people and very poor and in recent years the poor have grown much poorer. In most other western societies they would have taken to the streets long before now. The American Establishment has pulled off one of the greatest propaganda coups of all time...they convinced the masses to consistently vote against their own interests.
A healthy middle class makes for a stable and invested
society. A non-integrated class will lead to social breakdown. They will either
be viewed as being a drain on the system, or in some cases they can be
exploited for cheap labour. Either way it helps to create certain conditions
which are unhealthy and anytime there are bumps in the road for the middle
class, they will look to the non-integrated segments as an outlet for anger and
blame.