Class Warfare

Every time a tax increase on the rich is proposed, the Tea Party front men, Boehner and McConnell, holler “Class Warfare” as if any attempt at accomplishing justice and balancing budgets at the same time is somehow wrong. Calling tax increases on the rich class warfare is like calling affirmative action in college or corporate admissions the same. It is all part and parcel of the convenient compartmentalized thinking called privilege.
Privilege is the real class warfare and it is on-going. It is so pervasive it is subtle. We have heard of “too big to fail” when the Big Banks were bailed out. Privilege is too big to see.
Privilege starts with assumptions. It assumes that certain people deserve more than others based on distribution of wealth as it exists. It assumes, for instance, that white people deserve more than black people because white people have a larger share of the economic pie to begin with and always have had. In other words, never mind looking at how that picture came into being and is sustained. Just look at the picture, and assume that it exists by tradition, not privilege. Assume that the educational opportunities for blacks and whites are the same, that job opportunity is the same, and that we make of life what we put into it. Also assume that we do not have to think about these things because we have been taught a so-called self-evident truism that “All men are created equal.” We all theoretically come out of the starting blocks as equals.
Privilege is never to examine these assumptions. Privilege is being able to play along with the status quo and to assume we all get to climb the same ladders to success, or at least that we all have ladders to climb. The pervasive class warfare waged since the founding of this country has been the deliberate as well as privileged exclusion of groups of people from the most lucrative mainstream channels to success.
Taxing the rich is a way of reinvesting in the process that broadens the playing field for those less fortunate. It is not class warfare. Waiting for the rich to invest voluntarily in mechanisms that produce jobs in America is like waiting to win the lottery: the chances of winning are miniscule. There are too many opportunities worldwide to invest in that might yield a better return, especially through investing in the developing world.
What we need in America right now is for rich Americans to see their vast resources as a privilege rather than a right. With privilege comes responsibility. Warren Buffett and Bill Gates both see their wealth as a social responsibility, not as a personal hoard. When Buffett says he needs to be taxed more, he is recognizing his responsibility to his country and his privileged status. He also sees government as a proper vehicle in tough times through which opportunity can be expanded to include more citizens contributing to the greater good. Certainly, in a perfect capitalist world, opportunity would best be provided by private investment. However, investors, like consumers, look to invest in the best available investments regardless of country of origin. When a country is suffering a recession, global or otherwise, it is government that is most likely to invest directly in its own country’s economy through improved infrastructure. It may also invest in what it sees as future sources of domestic economic growth areas, but it can make some bad bets as the Obama administration did in Solyndra, the California solar collector company. Sticking to infrastructure reform is probably the better investment.
So when the Republicans, at the behest of Tea Party extremists, scream “Class Warfare,” just answer with the same answer that confronted the so-called unfairness of affirmative action. Affirmative action as a concept actually describes an affirmation of privilege in that the sons and daughters of privilege get to have their own lower entrance standards to college admission under the label “legacy.” While the less fortunate may also be held to similar standards under the same label of “affirmative action,” they would be better described as candidates for “affirmative correction.”
Taxing the rich is just another form of “affirmative correction.” “Class warfare” is a paltry cry made from privilege, and, in reality, an accurate assessment of a chronic condition.