{"id":680,"date":"2010-09-20T11:29:06","date_gmt":"2010-09-20T11:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2010\/09\/class-war-in-america.html"},"modified":"2010-09-20T11:29:06","modified_gmt":"2010-09-20T11:29:06","slug":"class-war-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/09\/class-war-in-america.html","title":{"rendered":"Class War in America"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Three (now four)<\/b> recent posts on the web have
\nbrought home the truth of the class war being waged in this country – by the
\ncorporate and financial aristocracy of privileged chislers against everyone
\nelse – with a cheering section of so-called “free-market” supporters who blind
\nothers, and are often themselves, singing rhapsodies about “the market” as a means
\nof obscuring what is really happening.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

First is the story in today’s New York Times about competent people in their late 50s who cannot get jobs even after many decades of employment.  <\/span>Despite their best efforts they may never work again. <\/a> <\/span>Meanwhile the sociopaths on the right call them lazy and want their Social Security postponed and cut in order to pay for our wars.  <\/span>Craven or similarly sociopathic Democrats often go along.<\/p>\n

Second is the disgusting story of a University of Chicago law professor Todd Henderson who cries about his high taxes if America’s richest do not get to continue benefiting from Bush’s financial irresponsibility.  <\/span>He actually seems to think that reasonable people would sympathize with him in his excess.  <\/span>The spoiled rottenness of the man’s arguments are wonderfully dissected by Michael O’Hare here<\/a>  and Brad DeLong here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Third is a story about the rage of the privileged class<\/a> of parasites who somehow claim to be productive and therefore worth their wealth.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Fourth is the argument by bankers that they need bailouts but regular citizens should just lump it. This is no exaggeration<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The arguments of libertarians and their sympathizers that the rich received their wealth through voluntary transactions on the market ignores two major facts.  <\/span>First, and I think most importantly, more than anyone else the rich are able to use government to manipulate the market to give them even more wealth, and they do.  <\/span>Second, a great many simply inherited their swag, the only skill involved being due a lucky egg and a lucky sperm.<\/p>\n

Going as far back at least as Aristotle, careful observers of politics have noted that the rich are the group that, as a whole, aggresses most against other citizens and ultimately create destructive political crises.  I think this is because when you begin seeing your success in life in making as much money as possible you become a slave to it.  The soul seeking personal success through increasing their financial wealth is a spiritual black hole that will always be hungry and never attain its goal.And in the process of trying they injure others, sometimes horribly.<\/p>\n

My thanks to the Balloon Juice<\/a>  blog for helping me decide to finally call class war by the parasites what it really is.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three (now four) recent posts on the web have brought home the truth of the class war being waged in this country – by the corporate and financial aristocracy of privileged chislers against everyone else – with a cheering section of so-called “free-market” supporters who blind others, and are often themselves, singing rhapsodies about “the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-social-and-political-theory"],"yoast_head":"\nClass War in America - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/09\/class-war-in-america.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Class War in America - 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