A war on the middle class waged by the crony class (and dependent allies)?
The crony rich have always feared an independent middle class
The middle class is what has traditionally defined this country. This is in stark contrast to Europe with its (even now) deeply vested aristocracy, and in contrast to almost all of the developing world which is usually defined by a ruling class and a broadly impoverished underclass. The US has core middle class sentiments that permeate our cultural DNA (even outside of the middle class).
We were founded as a nation of property owners. And despite the obvious issue of limited suffrage, generally only landed white males could vote at our inception, this was nonetheless a radical departure from the old ways where one was a serf, was always a serf, and one’s children would suffer the same fate forever under the direct rule of an aristocratic lord.
In America the everyday person, if they survived (literally), could expect to enjoy a significant level of dignity uncommon in human history. Even with slavery, and indentured servitude, and a lack of women’s suffrage, this still constituted a departure from the trajectory of prior human history. That the everyday white male owner of 10 acres had a say in his own affairs to any degree was revolutionary. This was a step in a broader, very middle class movement which would soon empower people who were not white, or male, or landed.
It was the middle class (in various iterations) that built this country. But there are those who hate the middle class. Traditionally the disdain for everyday people has come from a type of well-to-do person, particularly of the crony variety, (there is legitimate rich and there is illegitimate, crony, rich) who affects (in this country) a membership in a neo-aristocracy. The scions of this group too often inherit a distaste for things like pickup trucks and religion and “hard work” and meritocracy. Just look at the middle class people with their pedestrian concerns, their affinity for gun rights (which are a direct threat to any aristocracy, which is why we have a Second Amendment), shuffling off to church to worship their “god”. What a bunch of clingers. What a bunch of deplorables. But don’t worry soon we won’t have to pay any attention at all to those racist, homophobic, Constitution loving hicks who are holding society back.
The crony class relishes a big government. This has always been the case. From Hammurabi on down there has always been a crony class using the power of the state to make themselves rich and/or more powerful at the expense of the people.
The modern welfare state is not some example of altruistic enlightenment and “progress”. The modern welfare state, first crafted by the Kaiser in Germany was and is a tool that attaches the people who were once serfs and directly under the boot heel of the king, but who were now more independent because of the Industrial Revolution, back to the state. If your retirement pension depends on whether the state will send you a check in the mail, guess what? In all likelihood you are going to be compliant with anything the state demands.
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