"There is a class war going on in the U.S.," and workers are losing it, noted author Barbara Ehrenreich says. Not only that, she adds, but progressives should be unafraid to spell it out.
Ehrenreich, writer of the best-selling Nickeled And Dimed In America, advanced her theme at a debate June 13 during the 2,000-person "Take Back America" conference.
"Talk about an asymettrical conflict," she said after reeling off a mass of statistics of the problems affecting middle and lower-class workers.
Opposing her was American Prospect editor Michael Tomasky, who conceded all but the rich are falling behind, but contended such arguments would not play well for progressives on this fall's campaign trail. He advocated a "campaign for the common good" that would showcase progressives--including labor--pushing to again lift all boats.
"Common good? We don't even have common ground!" Ehrenreich retorted. "We're divided between gated communities on the one hand and trailer parks and tenements on the other."
Ehrenreich cited statistics on the widening wealth gap between the rich and the rest of us, the rise in incomes for the top 0.1 percent of the population while the bottom 80 percent is stagnant or declining, 46 million people without health care and millions more underinsured, and -- for good measure -- he GOP redefinition of poverty to blame the victim.
"I would say poverty, and the threat of it hanging over all of us, is a moral issue," she declared. To fight back, she added, progressives have already won in more than 100 cities by making the living wage a moral issue, too.
"In the long run, not even Wal-Mart is going to have anybody to sell things to if they don't pay their workers a living wage," she said of the notoriously low-pay anti-worker retail behemoth.
"In a class war, we as liberals have a fight on our hands, and we have to hold up the standards in that fight," she contended.
Tomasky countered that "the shifting 12 percent" of the U.S. electorate that decides presidential and congressional elections "is not going to necessarily respond to class war." He added "a different rhetoric could be appealing to them." He admitted, however, that "people don't respond to calls for shared sacrifice because no one has submitted the idea to them."
"The class anger level has been rising since 2003 and Enron. They see an average CEO making $10 million a year and meanwhile it's not just the uninsured that lack health care, but the insured who can't afford it," Ehrenreich replied.
Written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
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“There is a class war going on in the U.S.,” and workers are losing it, noted author Barbara Ehrenreich says. Not only that, she adds, but progressives should be unafraid to spell it out.
Ehrenreich, writer of the best-selling Nickeled And Dimed In America, advanced her theme at a debate June 13 during the 2,000-person “Take Back America” conference.
“Talk about an asymettrical conflict,” she said after reeling off a mass of statistics of the problems affecting middle and lower-class workers.
Opposing her was American Prospect editor Michael Tomasky, who conceded all but the rich are falling behind, but contended such arguments would not play well for progressives on this fall’s campaign trail. He advocated a “campaign for the common good” that would showcase progressives–including labor–pushing to again lift all boats.
“Common good? We don’t even have common ground!” Ehrenreich retorted. “We’re divided between gated communities on the one hand and trailer parks and tenements on the other.”
Ehrenreich cited statistics on the widening wealth gap between the rich and the rest of us, the rise in incomes for the top 0.1 percent of the population while the bottom 80 percent is stagnant or declining, 46 million people without health care and millions more underinsured, and — for good measure — he GOP redefinition of poverty to blame the victim.
“I would say poverty, and the threat of it hanging over all of us, is a moral issue,” she declared. To fight back, she added, progressives have already won in more than 100 cities by making the living wage a moral issue, too.
“In the long run, not even Wal-Mart is going to have anybody to sell things to if they don’t pay their workers a living wage,” she said of the notoriously low-pay anti-worker retail behemoth.
“In a class war, we as liberals have a fight on our hands, and we have to hold up the standards in that fight,” she contended.
Tomasky countered that “the shifting 12 percent” of the U.S. electorate that decides presidential and congressional elections “is not going to necessarily respond to class war.” He added “a different rhetoric could be appealing to them.” He admitted, however, that “people don’t respond to calls for shared sacrifice because no one has submitted the idea to them.”
“The class anger level has been rising since 2003 and Enron. They see an average CEO making $10 million a year and meanwhile it’s not just the uninsured that lack health care, but the insured who can’t afford it,” Ehrenreich replied.
Written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.