Class Conflict

[kalm]

1) Like it or not, OWS was out in front of this one. 2) No wonder the Republican candidates are pivoting to populism and progressive stances.

Now before you 1%'ers get your panties in a bunch, the article goes on to mention that the numbers don't necessarily reflect attitudes toward the rich so there's still time to preserve your "producer" image. So far, only a slight majority still believe that the wealthy earned their loot through nepotism.

Rising Share of Americans See Conflict Between Rich and Poor
by Rich Morin

The Occupy Wall Street movement no longer occupies Wall Street, but the issue of class conflict has captured a growing share of the national consciousness. A new Pew Research Center survey of 2,048 adults finds that about two-thirds of the public (66%) believes there are “very strong” or “strong” conflicts between the rich and the poor—an increase of 19 percentage points since 2009.

Not only have perceptions of class conflict grown more prevalent; so, too, has the belief that these disputes are intense. According to the new survey, three-in-ten Americans (30%) say there are “very strong conflicts” between poor people and rich people. That is double the proportion that offered a similar view in July 2009 and the largest share expressing this opinion since the question was first asked in 1987.

These changes in attitudes over a relatively short period of time may reflect the income and wealth inequality message conveyed by Occupy Wall Street protesters across the country in late 2011 that led to a spike in media attention to the topic. But the changes also may also reflect a growing public awareness of underlying shifts in the distribution of wealth in American society.2 According to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data, the proportion of overall wealth—a measure that includes home equity, stocks and bonds and the value of jewelry, furniture and other possessions—held by the top 10% of the population increased from 49% in 2005 to 56% in 2009.

No wonder the rich bare and increasing majority of the tax burden.

[JohnStOnge]

Of course there's a relatively high prevalance of perception of conflict. We have wave after wave of reports on "gaps" along with the implication that a "gap" means the "unrich" are worse off as a result of the "rich" being better off. The implied premise is that if the gap were not growing the "unrich" would be better off. It's a false premise. But that doesn't matter. Populist egalitarian propaganda holds sway.

[CID1990]

I'm not rich. Not even close.

I don't begrudge rich people their money. No rich person has ever stood in my way to becoming rich, I just don't have the work ethic required to make gobs of money. A few years back I could have gotten in on the ground level in a furniture importing business, but frankly it just seemed like more work and more hours than I wanted to put in.

I have not personally felt that I have been hurt by wealth disparities. I have achieved nearly everything I have set out to do. I have enough monry to buy and IPhone if I want one (I don't). I have food on the table and my kids will likely be able to go to college, although it will be more expensive than when I went to college, but then it was also more expensive for me than it was for my father.

I have worked in a tobacco field, delivered pizza, dug ditches (literally), run a chainsaw all summer, weeded gardens, worked as a waiter, and I did all those things after college before I became a cop. 90% of all the jobs I have held were for minimum wage, and I was supporting myself at those times with no government assistance.

I would like to have more money, but I am just not willing to run up my stress levels and blood pressure to do the things I would have to do to make that happen. I personally know some of these angry 99 percenters, and they fit the same mold as I do, except that they do not want to admit that they do not have the desire to work for riches, and would not be wealthy in this country no matter what the wealth disparity is, or in spite of any perceived notions of being held back because of missing jobs. The 99% is 70% deadbeats and 20% whine, and the rest truly cannot find jobs. The only thing that will ever put more money in their pockets is government subsidies of one flavor or another.

I am not sure what the so called 99% are so angry about. Shut up, go deliver some pizza or dig a ditch, and we'll push through this economic downturn, just as we always have. Oh, and anyone who tweets about the injustice of it all from their IPhone should forever be relegated to a soup kitchen for the glaring hypocisy of it all, anyway.

I am the 99%.

[Ivytalk]

There you go, kalm, dragging class into it again....

Note the gratuitous Monty Python riff.

[houndawg]

I'm not rich. Not even close.

I don't begrudge rich people their money. No rich person has ever stood in my way to becoming rich, I just don't have the work ethic required to make gobs of money. A few years back I could have gotten in on the ground level in a furniture importing business, but frankly it just seemed like more work and more hours than I wanted to put in.

I have not personally felt that I have been hurt by wealth disparities. I have achieved nearly everything I have set out to do. I have enough monry to buy and IPhone if I want one (I don't). I have food on the table and my kids will likely be able to go to college, although it will be more expensive than when I went to college, but then it was also more expensive for me than it was for my father.

I have worked in a tobacco field, delivered pizza, dug ditches (literally), run a chainsaw all summer, weeded gardens, worked as a waiter, and I did all those things after college before I became a cop. 90% of all the jobs I have held were for minimum wage, and I was supporting myself at those times with no government assistance.

I would like to have more money, but I am just not willing to run up my stress levels and blood pressure to do the things I would have to do to make that happen. I personally know some of these angry 99 percenters, and they fit the same mold as I do, except that they do not want to admit that they do not have the desire to work for riches, and would not be wealthy in this country no matter what the wealth disparity is, or in spite of any perceived notions of being held back because of missing jobs. The 99% is 70% deadbeats and 20% whine, and the rest truly cannot find jobs. The only thing that will ever put more money in their pockets is government subsidies of one flavor or another.

I am not sure what the so called 99% are so angry about. Shut up, go deliver some pizza or dig a ditch, and we'll push through this economic downturn, just as we always have. Oh, and anyone who tweets about the injustice of it all from their IPhone should forever be relegated to a soup kitchen for the glaring hypocisy of it all, anyway.

I am the 99%.

Usually I'd rather have the time than the money too. I think the product of the two is conserved, like energy or momentum.

Nothing wrong with working hard and getting rich if that's what you want. Of course by "working hard" I exclude parasites like the Wall Streeters, drag one of those out in the street every week and put a pistol to his head like that famous pic from early in Viet Nam.....pay the rest of them their bonuses in cash on Friday afternoon at a public location and post notice in advance....

[kalm]

Of course there's a relatively high prevalance of perception of conflict. We have wave after wave of reports on "gaps" along with the implication that a "gap" means the "unrich" are worse off as a result of the "rich" being better off. The implied premise is that if the gap were not growing the "unrich" would be better off. It's a false premise. But that doesn't matter. Populist egalitarian propaganda holds sway.

Productivity is up.

[kalm]

I'm not rich. Not even close.

I don't begrudge rich people their money. No rich person has ever stood in my way to becoming rich, I just don't have the work ethic required to make gobs of money. A few years back I could have gotten in on the ground level in a furniture importing business, but frankly it just seemed like more work and more hours than I wanted to put in.

I have not personally felt that I have been hurt by wealth disparities. I have achieved nearly everything I have set out to do. I have enough monry to buy and IPhone if I want one (I don't). I have food on the table and my kids will likely be able to go to college, although it will be more expensive than when I went to college, but then it was also more expensive for me than it was for my father.

I have worked in a tobacco field, delivered pizza, dug ditches (literally), run a chainsaw all summer, weeded gardens, worked as a waiter, and I did all those things after college before I became a cop. 90% of all the jobs I have held were for minimum wage, and I was supporting myself at those times with no government assistance.

I would like to have more money, but I am just not willing to run up my stress levels and blood pressure to do the things I would have to do to make that happen. I personally know some of these angry 99 percenters, and they fit the same mold as I do, except that they do not want to admit that they do not have the desire to work for riches, and would not be wealthy in this country no matter what the wealth disparity is, or in spite of any perceived notions of being held back because of missing jobs. The 99% is 70% deadbeats and 20% whine, and the rest truly cannot find jobs. The only thing that will ever put more money in their pockets is government subsidies of one flavor or another.

I am not sure what the so called 99% are so angry about. Shut up, go deliver some pizza or dig a ditch, and we'll push through this economic downturn, just as we always have. Oh, and anyone who tweets about the injustice of it all from their IPhone should forever be relegated to a soup kitchen for the glaring hypocisy of it all, anyway.

I am the 99%.

Good post but the lazy, whining, protesting segment are only 1% of the 46% that disagree with you.

[kalm]

There you go, kalm, dragging class into it again....

Note the gratuitous Monty Python riff.

Supply side economics is a farcical aquatic ceremony!