This link has been bookmarked by 1 people . It was first bookmarked on 17 Jul 2012, by Todd Suomela.
Not to sound defeatist, but maybe the one-percent has already won this thing. With the poor now cheering for the rich, the plutocrats’ wildest and most ambitious fantasies have been realized. Not only have the rich succeeded in convincing workers to root against labor unions—the one and only institution dedicated to their welfare—they’ve convinced them to fight for the interests of the wealthy rather than the interests of their own tribe.
politics elites capitalism defeat cultural-theory unions work labor ideology
Unfortunately, that’s all changed. While you still hear the occasional grumbling directed toward “corrupt union bosses,” what people complain about today it that labor unions are “elitist.” It’s true. Shocking as that may seem, America’s working people actually use the E-word when referring to other working people—to people who, by virtue of a union contract, have managed to stay above water, who’ve managed to retain decent wages and benefits, and haven’t fallen victim to the biggest money grab since the Gilded Age.
At first I thought this attitude was simply a manifestation of petty jealousy or schadenfreude. But the more I hear, the more I’m convinced the public honestly believes that working people who feel they’re entitled to decent wages and benefits see themselves as being somehow “above the rest of us,” and should, therefore, be knocked down a peg or two. Instead of a union contract serving as a model for the rest of us—something to raise our standard of living—they see it as an insult, a humiliation.
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