By Dennis Marker / Santa Fe Resident on Mon, Sep 24, 2012
Reprinted from Albuquerque Journal
The U.S. middle class has been in decline since the election of President Ronald Reagan. The radical economic policies introduced by the Reagan Administration, called Reaganomics, have been implemented. The result has been the near extinction of the middle class.
The combination of media ownership changes, the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine, union busting, privatization, deregulation, global free trade, waging unnecessary wars and filling the Supreme Court with conservative politicians in black robes has done its job.
In just 30 short years we have gone from the greatest middle class country on earth to a two-tiered economy where one family, the Waltons, own between 30 percent and 40 percent of the nation’s wealth, and many Walmart workers can barely be called middle class. Millions of other Americans have no way to earn a living or even feed themselves adequately.
A Pew Research Center report released a week ago demonstrates clearly that the self-described middle class knows they are in trouble with many believing the U.S. middle class will never recover. What is certain is that both the wealth and income distribution has moved consistently from the middle to the top since the election of Reagan.
Many middle class people including (those in) the tea party have forgotten that the U.S. was started by people who wanted to escape the two-tiered economic system in Europe, where the rich controlled all the resources and everyone else was left to fight over the relative crumbs. But that doesn’t change the fact that the U.S. is moving rapidly away from a middle class democracy and toward a corporate feudal republic where a relative few control all the nation’s wealth and power.
This new system of concentrated wealth is quite similar to the one our forefathers and mothers fled when they journeyed across the wide Atlantic. The difference is that our forefathers and mothers came to this new land to escape the two-tiered economic system that was of, by and for the rich, while in today’s United States much of the middle class has been convinced to embrace the vary policies that are leading the U.S. back to this system.
One only need look at the non-rich conservatives who unknowingly fight for the policies and politicians that will lead to their own demise. They have been conned into believing that the giant multinational corporations and their owners are on the side of regular middle class people.
They believe that if we could only get the meddlesome government off the backs of the giant corporations and their owners, these corporations would surely hire millions of Americans and share their wealth voluntarily.
The overriding theme used consistently by every conservative and far too many moderates since the election of Ronald Reagan is that rewarding those at the top with tax cuts and other incentives will lead to middle class prosperity. The overriding reality is that the continuation of these policies will lead to the end of the U.S. middle class.
For 30 years we have tried the policy of favoring the rich in the hope that somehow the prosperity would trickle down to the rest of us. What we have (received) in return is a crumbling middle class… and an economic plan that calls for even more tax cuts for the rich to be paid for by a reduction of services for everyone else.
So by all means, let the rich decide. They’re already buying our political system with unlimited campaign contributions.…
In old style feudalism the feudal lords lived in castles and taxed the poor to pay for their extravagant lifestyles. In the new style corporate feudalism conservatives are pushing us toward, the lords live in multiple palatial compounds scattered around the world and the poor and failing middle class pay the taxes so the rich don’t have to.
If what you want for yourself and your children is to become the modern day version of serfs and peasants, by all means let the rich decide. If the rich no longer need a middle class, why should you?
Dennis Marker has worked on Capitol Hill for the Environmental Protection Agency and is the author of “Fifteen Steps to Corporate Feudalism: How the Rich Convinced America’s Middle Class to Eliminate Themselves.”
Posted on: August 17th, 2012 by admin
One thing is clear. The U.S. middle class has been in decline since the election of Ronald Reagan. The steps outlined in Fifteen Steps to Corporate Feudalism explain why. While the move from middle class democracy to a Corporate Feudal Republic has continued since the “Reagan Revolution” with both Republicans and Democrats in control of the White House, the pace has been much quicker with Republicans in charge. The Paul Ryan budget is nothing more than a blueprint for Corporate Feudalism. Tax cuts for billionaires and giant corporations and service cuts for the middle class and poor. Privatization, deregulation, cuts in education, attacks on unions and continued global free trade. These policies led a much stronger economy to the brink of national bankruptcy in 2008, and led directly to record personal bankruptcies and foreclosures for the middle class and poor. Can the middle class survive another round of these policies or will another conservative administration complete this nations move to Corporate Feudalism? This is a serious question that should be answered by anyone who believes the U.S. middle class is worth saving.
Posted on: July 30th, 2012 by admin
Posted on: July 16th, 2012 by admin
Corporate Feudalists don’t believe in Democracy. And they don’t believe that the soon to be serfs and peasants deserve an explanation for anything. That’s why Mitt thinks the common people have no need to look at his tax records. This is an uncomfortable period for Corporate Feudalists like Mitt. The middle class has been seriously wounded and
seemingly on the way out, and the Corporate Feudalists are clearly in control. But some of the old rules like disclosure are still expected even of the "superrich," who have already moved past the quaint old ways of middle class democracy.
Posted on: July 13th, 2012 by admin
Posted on: June 26th, 2012 by admin
Anyone who believes that the right wing majority in the US Supreme Court is anything more than pro corporate “hacks in black” is just not paying attention.They are completely unaccountable to the public, judicial tradition, the truth and the constitution. Overturning the Montana Supreme Courts well thought out and documented ruling prohibiting corporations from buying elections makes the majority’s priorities breathtakingly clear. They have become the judicial wing of Corporate Feudalism. “States Rights” are important unless a state is trying to count all the votes in a presidential election, trying to stop Corporate Feudalists from buying politicians and elections, or trying to claim that corporations should be held accountable for their actions. They are right wing politicians with robes. They are not “Supreme."
Posted on: June 20th, 2012 by admin
There has been a nationwide effort in states controlled by conservatives to limit peoples right to vote. Laws have been passed and policies have been implemented to make voting harder for the poor, blacks, Hispanics, and students. This should be no surprise to people familiar with Corporate Feudalism. The entire plan for Corporate Feudalism is based on the simple fact that the rich know best, control all the resources and really don’t need or care about what become modern day serfs and peasants. Requiring photo ID’s, purging Hispanic sounding names from voter rolls, ending early voting, especially on Sundays, making voter registration as hard as possible, and stopping students from voting where they go to school are all part of this effort. The Corporate Feudalists and their moneypuppet politicians don’t want you to vote, unless you’re rich. It’s really that simple.
Posted on: June 11th, 2012 by admin
Conning the evangelical church has been a crucial step in the plan to eliminate the US middle class. For thirty years Republicans have worked to falsely convince evangelicals that conservatives and evangelicals are one and the same. Even when conservatives economically destroy the US middle class, lie the nation into unnecessary wars, get caught with prostitutes, have sex with minors and engage in every other sin imaginable, evangelicals have stuck with the supposedly more moral Republican Party. Now the Republican Party is telling evangelicals to vote for a Mormon, who has actively worked to convert Christians to his Mormon faith. Evangelicals have to decide if their religion is more important to them than their political party. Sure, it’s hard to realize you have been lied to for thirty years. But it might be even harder to vote for someone who has actively worked to undermine your religious beliefs, if you take those beliefs seriously.
Posted on: June 7th, 2012 by admin
Posted on: May 29th, 2012 by admin
As we move down the path toward Corporate Feudalism one thing should be clear. The rich don’t need to share. Average CEO pay for companies in the S&P 500 was $12.94 million in 2011. The Wall Street Journal reports that US manufacturing output has increased 13 percent while wages for manufacturing workers are near what they were in 2000. Corporate profits for many industries are at all time highs. This is Corporate Feudalism. Workers work harder for less while those at the top further separate themselves from the rest. Why share if you don’t have to?
