MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
|
|
|
From the Readers
- barefooted 9 months ago
- PeraclesPlease 10 months ago
- PeraclesPlease 11 months ago
- PeraclesPlease 12 months ago
- PeraclesPlease 1 year ago
- PeraclesPlease 1 year ago
- artappraiser 1 year ago
- PeraclesPlease 1 year ago
- PeraclesPlease 1 year ago
- artappraiser 1 year ago
Creative corner
- PeraclesPlease 11 months ago
- PeraclesPlease 1 year ago
- PeraclesPlease 1 year ago
- artappraiser 1 year ago
- artappraiser 1 year ago
From the Dagbloggers
- Michael Wolraich 11 months 3 weeks ago
- Danny Cardwell 3 years 2 months ago
- Doctor Cleveland 3 years 11 months ago
- PeraclesPlease 4 years 1 month ago
- PeraclesPlease 4 years 1 month ago
- William K. Wolfrum 4 years 1 month ago
- William K. Wolfrum 4 years 1 month ago
- Doctor Cleveland 4 years 2 months ago
- Doctor Cleveland 4 years 2 months ago
- William K. Wolfrum 4 years 3 months ago
Are Well-Off Progressives Standing in the Way of a Real Movement for Economic Justice?
By cmaukonen on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 10:55am |Good question.
By now it should come as no surprise that most Democratic politicians are more responsive to the interests of more affluent voters than to the working class, even if they’re nominally better than Republicans with regard to middle-class interests. But the fact of the matter is that it’s not just Democratic politicians who are operating from a position of privilege, but the broader progressive leadership. Perhaps this isn’t surprising either, but for a party purporting to defend the economic interests of the working and middle class -- to say nothing of the poor (as per usual) -- it’s a fatal weakness. By and large, the people who work at progressive think tanks, media outlets and policy centers are well-compensated -- some extravagantly so -- and staggeringly well-educated; they have solid health-care benefits and 401(k)s. As genuinely as they may care about social justice, their caring is largely based on principle rather than self-interest.
Indeed, Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels has shown that voting based on social values has increased among middle-class and affluent white voters -- making “What’s the matter with Manhattan?” a more appropriate question than “What’s the matter with Kansas?” The answer is, of course, nothing. There’s no reason people should vote based on economics rather than social issues, or vice versa. And yet the distinction does matter when it comes to questions of economic justice -- it’s harder to let wage stagnation slide when it’s a fact of life rather than a line on a graph.
While the makeup of the progressive leadership is a symptom of the decline of the working class rather than its root cause, it’s a symptom that perpetuates the disease. Built around often-competing values of technocratic policymaking and social equality, progressives have typically sought the latter via redistribution in the form of taxes and “smart” policy measures rather than trying to make the economic model itself more equitable. We're starting to see the limitations of a technocratic approach to building an essentially charitable welfare state, but by now we've already ceded so much ground that any attempt to bring the conversation back to the structure of the economy itself is labeled as crazy socialist nonsense.
And why should the well heeled Progressives want to change the status quo ? They're doing just fine, thankyouverymuch.
URL:
http://www.alternet.org/economy/151040/are_well-off_progressives_standing_in_the_way_of_a_real_movement_for_economic_justice/
- Add new comment
- 1651 reads
Comments
I'd appreciate it (others might benefit, too) if you cut and paste someone's piece that you either italicize it and name the author, rather than just confuse us (me?) about the author. I'd thought you'd written it, and the links only took me to pdf's. Thanks.
p.s. You don't get the link until you click to comment, and go chasing around a bit first.
by we are stardust on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 11:10am
Well healed should be well-heeled. When I read such things, I wonder: Would the author be happier if those of us currently making a living joined the other party or would they prefer that we simply disappear?
by Donal on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 11:10am
Just FYI -
Alyssa Battistoni writes a bit at HuffPo, where she is listed as an "NGO consultant." She also writes a lot at Salon. She's presently at Oxford, doing an MPhil in Nature, Society and Environmental Policy. In 2008, she graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Political Science with Honors. She's originally from Rhode Island. She's on Twitter.
She writes: "As a sophomore, I spent several months working with a relief organization in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina; my resulting honors thesis, examining disaster management in the United States, won the Arnaud B. Leavelle prize for best thesis in political theory. After graduation, I spent a year as a Tom Ford Fellow in the Democratic Practice program of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a philanthropic foundation in New York, and another at the Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC), a Mumbai-based NGO that works to solve issues of urban poverty, housing, and infrastructure through community-led processes. I love to read, travel, cook, and explore—whether trekking in Ladakh, camping in the Mojave, eating street food in Mumbai, or biking the back roads of New Orleans, I love discovering the patterns and customs—geographic, ecological, cultural, historical—that make a place what it is."
At which point, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
More seriously, she wants people from poor communities to come forward and drive the progressive movement. People who aren't well off, or well-educated, who don't have the option of leaving, but are embedded in their communities.
Great! Me too! And yup, she even writes some good stuff - I read some of her other pieces.
But for me, I try to remember that sometimes people can be poor, then they get educated and continue doing good things but make some money, and still... they work for change. Not all of them sell out, not all of them lose complete touch.
Some do, some don't.
by quinn esq on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 11:43am
"...the people who work at progressive think tanks, media outlets and policy centers are well-compensated -- some extravagantly so -- and staggeringly well-educated."
There is basic premise, one which was drilled into me from day one as a child, and is reiterated in the media (including the commercials for community and tech colleges), that a college education leads to greater compensation. This is not just a matter of describing a matter of fact, but a proper consequence derived from the individuals who increased their skill set and and knowledge through more "training."
Whether a college grad should, all things being equal, be compensated more than some with only a high school education is something each needs to decide for themselves. But culturally speaking, it is pretty much a fact.
The question here is whether one would prefer people who "staggering well-educated" to hold the positions at think tanks, media outlets and policy centers? Of course, one can educate oneself without going through some educational institution of "higher learning;" and there are plenty of examples of those institution producing individuals who cannot tell a hawk from a handsaw. Yet from a hiring perspective, would it make sense to hire someone at a policy center for instance who had just a high school diploma?
No matter how weak or strong the "working class" is, think tanks, media outlets and policy centers will be filled for the most part with the well-educated, and well-compensated. From what I can tell, the same is true in European countries which has been able to avoid the situation where turning the talk to the structure of the economy gets inevitably labeled as crazy socialist nonsense. And they were able to use the technocratic approach to bringing in a more just structure.
In short, rather than gutting think tanks, media outlets and policy centers of the well-educated and well-compensated, we should be looking at addressing the socio-political mindset (or paradigms) of the working class that has shaped the political discourse in this country.
by Elusive Trope on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 11:53am
One thing that is fairly unique to this time period. That is the technology we have had for the last 30 years or so, is that one only really needs the appropriate knowledge and education to perform the technology tasks at hand. Very little of what I would cal skill is involved. In many areas non at all.
Medicine is one of the few areas where skill and knowledge is required.
This was not always so as to be an engineer ot technician required a particular skill set as well as a deep understanding of what ones was doing.
So we can (and for my money do) have a number of highly educated and knowledgeable Willy Lomans. Who can't but a bolt to a nut, tell you the law or give you medicine. Just people out the in the blue riding on a smile and a shoe shine.
by cmaukonen on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 12:16pm
The original blog was attempting to make the case that the fact that those on the left in the think tanks, media outlets and policy centers are well paid (and well educated) makes it impossible for those people to develop policies, ideas, etc that are aligned with the well-being of the poor and working classes. The fact that they are part of the wealthy elite (granted on the lower end of it) inevitably means they will be disconnected and unconcered about the interests of those less economically fortunate.
If this is so, we are doomed. In order for a policy center focused on sustainable energy or transporation systems to be effective, a large number of people who are involved need both extensive education and work experiences. And given the way, the work world tends to operate, this means they will need to be nicely compensated (if to attract them to the position in the first place).
It is unfortuate in this country that there is such a large number of people who have a negative knee-jerk response to anything that smacks of being not fully aligned with capitalism and the "free market." It is a battle in and of itself. If one is focused on dealing with problems in education, transportation, poverty, etc. etc. - taking on the economic system would either be a full time task or end of marginalizing one's other work.
In the end it boils down again to whether we should use the incremental approach or the more revolutionary approach. A big part of incrementalism is the technocratic strategy. It has its flaws, but I don't think having nice salaries for the employees of the think tanks et al is one of them.
by Elusive Trope on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 12:49pm
I don't think it's the salaries bu themselves but the attitudes of those who receive them. Some have never had to themselves or their immediate families had to scrape by. And those that di and still managed to get where they are either acquire the attitude of Frank Burns, conveniently forgetting from whence they came and discount any help or lucky breaks they may have received along the way. In other words lack of humility and empathy.
I am not say all are like this but a good many are.
by cmaukonen on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 2:26pm
For some reason, your comment reminded me of yesterday's Luckovich cartoon
by EmmaZahn on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 2:44pm
Good find. She makes some good points and her youth gives me hope.
by EmmaZahn on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 1:46pm
Thankee
by cmaukonen on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 2:18pm
Give her 50 years, she'll make more sense. ;-)
by quinn esq on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 4:22pm
Hope lies eternal.
Not sure what that means, but could go on some after-shave lotion, or a naïve polito-blog roll.
by Desider on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 4:36pm
The tricky part about all of this is that "they" went and had Lasik invented for themselves, and now one can no longer be sure of who has to be sent to re-education camps in the countryside by whether or not they wear eyeglasses.
by artappraiser on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 2:55pm
Well there ya go. It's always something.
by cmaukonen on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 3:08pm
When I visited Cambodia first time, I was struck by the fact that no one I saw wore glasses. Quick Darwinian selection?
by Desider on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 4:48pm