Economic Classes in America?

Thus far, we've told stories about our interactions with the government and considered the condition of anarchy. There seemed to be a general sense of agreement among the participants: the government certainly has its low points, but compared to a condition of anarchy, the presence of some governing agencies is acceptable. Over the course of this semester, we will look at a variety of different ways that government can take shape.

In this post, let's talk about economic classes.

The notion of economic classes (e.g. worker class, middle class, capitalist class) emerged during the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe. It quickly migrated to the USA, but the notion of class politics only briefly became an important topic of public debate--during the late 1800s and early 1900s there was a lot of labor unrest with major strikes and protests surrounding issues of minimum wage, a 40 hour work week, safer working conditions, minimum working age, etc.

Basically, economic classes generally break down like this: workers own little to nothing but their ability to do manual labor, which they sale for a wage. Workers then take that wage and spend it on consumer goods that they just made at the factory, which in turn benefits the capitalist class. The capitalist class do not labor for a living. Rather, they own the machines and factories ("the means of production") in which workers labor each day for a modest wage. Middle class folks sit somewhere in between the workers and the capitalists. They may own a small business, but they probably work there each day alongside their employees, or they may be middle managers who earn a good salary but are not wealthy.



In the USA, usually we don't talk much about class politics.Does that mean class does not exist in the USA? Or are there economic classes?

If there are classes, do you think that they live together harmoniously? Do you think that there is no conflict of interest?

Or, is there class struggle between the workers and the capitalists? Is there a conflict of interest rooted in the selfish nature of people? Can you think of any (historical or contemporary) examples where class conflict between workers and capitalists was apparent?

If economic classes exist in the USA, do capitalists or workers exert more control over politicians and government policies? How do they exert this control?

Because we usually don't talk about class in the USA, are we more likely to be blind to our own class and blind to the class struggle? Do you think that we should talk about class politics more and emphasize our distinct class affiliations?



Or, maybe there are no classes in the USA. Maybe we all have a more or less equal starting place in life. We can all achieve "the American dream" of owning our own land and home with a white picket fence. Maybe this class thing is a bunch of bunk. We don't really talk about class because class isn't an important issue in American life. We really just need to work hard and pull ourselves up by the boot straps.

What do you think?

Security, Anarchy, and Freedom

In the last blog post, we told some stories about the government and how it impacts our everyday lives. Let's talk about anarchy in this post.

Anarchy, which as we mentioned in class is the absence of hierarchy, is an ideal concept. We can never find pure anarchy in 'real' life.



Conditions in contemporary Somalia, however, offer an approximation to 'real' anarchy.

Somalia has been consistently ranked as the worst failed state on the Failed States Index published annually by Foreign Policy magazine and Freedom House recently said that in Somalia there is little protection of individual rights.

Yet, Benjamin Powell says:

It is hard to call any country mired in poverty an economic success. Yet by most measures Somalia’s poverty is diminishing and Somalia has improved living standards faster than the average sub-Saharan African country since the early 1990s. In that sense Somalia is at least a relative success story. The most interesting part of Somalia’s success is that it has all been achieved while the country has lacked any effective central government.

For many, the “A” word—anarchy—conjures up notions of chaos. For others it simply means the absence of a single government ruling a geographic area. In this second sense, Somalia has been in a state of anarchy since the fall of Siad Barre’s dictatorship in 1991. The result has been, in general, economic development rather than chaos—although there certainly have been chaotic periods. The interesting questions are how has development been promoted and what has caused the chaos.

In the film Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, many people are heavily armed. No government means no police. In Somalia and post-Apocalyptic Australia alike, people must provide for their own security. Life, you might optimistically say, would be filled with surprise, action, and a level of risk beyond what most of us have ever experienced. Less optimistically, like Thomas Hobbes, we might say that life would be "solitary, nasty, brutish and short."

At the same time, the anarchy of Somalia and the anarchy of The Road Warrior is not chaotic. In post-Apocalyptic Australia, for instance, Lord Humongous as a following. He's clearly in charge and his band of marauders provide a level of collective security not available to most people living there. In Somalia, people are struggling in a more open and less structured fashion, but there is still a level of everyday order. Money is being made by some people and there is enough stability for some people to spend their money on goods (e.g. food, fuel, clothing) and services (e.g. pirating is a service that some people in Somalia provide).

What do you think? Does a place like the anarchical Somalia or post-Apocalyptic Australia have something to offer that a governed society lacks? Does less government and less publicly provided security mean more freedom? Would you rather be secured by police officers that sometimes take liberties with their jobs, or would you rather be secured by Somalian technicals like those shown in the pictures above? Is the freedom that Mad Max has to roam the landscape worth the risk of anarchy? Is it 'really' freedom at all?

Stories about the Government

To start off the blogging part of our class participation, lets talk about government. I'm sure that we all have a story. Lets hear it.

Do you have any positive or negative experiences interacting with government officials?

And by government official I mean in the broadest terms: it could be a US Senator, a park ranger, a DMV clerk, a judge, a tax clerk, etc. Maybe someone was aided by a public official--their house was saved by firemen. Or perhaps someone was ticketed by county sheriff or a state trooper. The point is that, whether you like it or not, you are regularly interacting with governmental agencies.

If you check your mailbox and find a bill or a check waiting on you, then you know that the government has been there. If the pothole on your morning commute is filled, then you know the government has been there. If your tap water is parasite free, then you know some governing agency is at work. At the same time, sometimes the water is contaminated, the meat is infected with e coli, and the pothole on your commute goes unfilled for months on end--the government is not perfect and is only partially successful and making its presence felt on a daily basis.

It could be worse, however. You could live in Somalia. There, the federal government is practically nonexistent. Warlords serve as governing agents. The roads, where there are roads, are never fixed. You eat at your own risk and the water, where it is in fact drinkable, is hard to access.

Here in the USA and most countries around the world, the government is a more or less important part of peoples' everyday life. How has the government touched your life? Lets hear your stories.

Hello Classes

This semester this blog is an experimental way to get you participating and thinking about politics and government. Three Politics and Government classes (100.03, 100.04, 100.05) will all be using this blog and commenting on posts. With over 100 students participating, there should be ample opportunity for everyone to have something worthwhile to say in response to my original post or another students' post.

Please be THOUGHTFUL and RESPECTFUL with those posts that you disagree with. There should be no personal attacks or name calling. This is the space to make reasoned arguments about political struggle and governmental order.