Class War in America

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

For simplicity's sake, there are usually three economic classes: poor, middle, and upper classes. One definition of middle class is this: 

Based on 2010 census data, the middle class would be the sixty percent of Americans with household incomes from $28,636 to $79,040 a year.

In America, the number of poor are increasing. The middle class is getting smaller as more people fall from middle to working class. And it is increasingly difficult for poor people in America to climb up from poverty to middle and upper classes.  

Workers and the shrinking middle class in America work more with fewer days of leave, less maternity leave, and fewer days of paid vacation compared to others around the world. Click on these images for a better picture of the emerging situation in the US:

At the same time, the wealthy are fewer and getting richer. CEO pay keeps going up while worker pay stays about the same. 

The gap between the wealthy and the working class is getting bigger -- while many citizens keep imagining that it is not, as this video shows:

Some people, however, see an increasing conflict between the classes -- as these graphs from Pew Research show.

What do you think? Are there classes in America? Is the gap between the classes too large -- is there too much inequality? If you think that gap is too large, what should be done to close the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest? Or, is the gap between the wealthy and the poor just about right? Should our policies aim to keep the wealthy wealthy and the poor poor? Are there any potential political problems of high levels of inequality?

Compassion in Anarchy

When we read about the four visions of anarchy, we focused on Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, and Kropotkin.

We didn't read Jean Jaques Rousseau, but he also had a vision of anarchy. One very important difference that he asserted against Hobbes and Locke was that man has pity or compassion for those in pain. Man is not only selfish and power hungry, but he is also compassionate.

What do you think about this? Do you think that man is compassionate? How would compassion shape the book we're reading, The Road? Would the story be different of men were depicted as compassionate? Or, would compassion be overrun by man's effort to acquire his desires, to be the most powerful, to be successful and strong?  

Life in Anarchy

In class, we talked about four visions of anarchy, life without government, and the origins of government -- this included Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, and Kropotkin.

Kropotkin offered one vision of anarchy. For him, life without government would be far less coercive and far more cooperative. For example, we can see examples of this kind of anarchy in the case of Belgium, which has been without a government for around 500 days [read about it here, here, and here]. Also, the wild west during the American frontier days was anarchical and apparently less violent than some American cities today. There are also a number of intentional anarchist communities. Radical Christians live in some US cities today. Similarly, the autonomous neighborhood (Freetown Christiania) in Copenhagen is another example. 

Hobbes offered another vision of anarchy. For him, life without government was nasty brutish, and short. Because of scarce resources (e.g. food, water, shelter, mating partners, etc.) and man's desire to obtain possessions, anarchy would be an all out all out struggle to survive -- and because of this constant struggle, there would be little wealth, little learning, few grand structures, little clothing, and no commerce. For example, we can see this vision of anarchy played out in places like Karachi, Pakistan. Somalia is another example. It has been without a centralized government since 1991 and is consistently ranked as the worst failed state in the world with 20% of its population living as political refugees. Like slum lords building houses in Karachi or the businessmen opening hospitals in Somalia, some people are making money and benefiting from the lack of government, but life is pretty hard for a large number of people.

What do you think?

Which vision of anarchy do you think is most likely to occur? Are people likely to voluntarily cooperate and mutually aid one another? Or, do you think that people are more likely to engage in an all out struggle? Or perhaps people would do both, they cooperate and conflict?  Tell me: What do you think life without government would be like? Does life without government have something to offer that a governed life does not?

Politics and Government Spring 2013

Hello Classes

This semester this blog is a way to get you participating and thinking about politics and government. Two Politics and Government classes (100.04, 100.05) will all be using this blog and commenting on posts. With nearly 60 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.

Enjoy the semester!