Class Politics in America

Thus far this semester, 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.

This week and next week we are reading The Iron Heel, which talks a lot about economic classes and class antogonism.

What are classes? 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--hence, workers are sometimes called "wage slaves." Workers then take that wage and spend it on consumer goods that they just made at the factory.

The capitalist class do not labor for a living -- they do not sale their labor for a wage. Rather, they own the machines and factories ("the means of production") in which workers labor each day for a modest wage and they own the stores in which laborers purchase their goods.

Middle class folks sit somewhere in between the workers and the capitalists. They probably own a nice home and 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.

Because we don't talk much about class politics, Does that mean class does not exist in the USA? Or do you think that there are economic classes in America?

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

Or, like Ernest, is there class struggle between the workers and the capitalists? Is there a fundamental conflict of interest between the classes? Does free trade favor the capitalist class over the working class?

If economic classes exist and there is a class struggle in America, who do you think is winning? What indicates to you that one class is winning over another?

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?

To help you answer these questions, here is a great website at the NY Times called "Class Matters." Go check it out and explore the interactive graphics and read the stories about people of different class positions.

Anarchy, Security, and Freedom

In the last blog post, we told some stories about the government and how it impacts our everyday lives.

What if there was no government? What is the absence of government called?

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 anarchy. Government in any formal sense has little practical hold on life there. Instead of an overarching government (what we call a "federal" government or even "local" government), there are competing tribes, clans, warlords, religious factions, mercenary groups, pirates, and so on throughout the territory.

Somalia has been consistently ranked as the worst failed state on the Failed States Index published annually by Foreign Policy magazine.

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 and they are free to make a living however they choose. 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?

Telling Stories About You and 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, a police officer, etc. Maybe someone was aided by a public official--their house was saved by firemen or a district attorney helped them out of a jam. Or perhaps someone was ticketed by a county sheriff or a state trooper. The point is that, whether you like it or not, you are regularly interacting with governmental agencies.

These men and women are the face of "the government."

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 Spring 2011 Politics and Government Classes

Hello Classes

This semester this blog is a 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 nearly 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.