• Jojo the Monkey
    June 2, 2020

    Piecework is so 1925. My great grandpappy was loading coal on piecework when you whippersnappers weren’t even zygotes. You can ask Anderson Cooper – his mama got the money.

  • Blissex
    June 3, 2020

    The critical political ingredient is that “co-opted class dependent on their relative privilege” (and it is not usually based on limited meritocracy even, but on residential property ownership). It is what gives popularity and electoral numbers to the oligarchy. Once upon a time “the oligarchs” were 1% of the population, now they are 20-30%.

    Disappointingly the left-wing have consistently refused to deal with that issue, choosing the escapism of identity politics or traditional “working class” politics.

    Tony Blair in the UK eventually chose escapism into identity politics and a swing to the right, but at least he understood the problem, two relevant quotes:

    “I was canvassing in the Midlands on an ordinary suburban estate. I met a man polishing his Ford Sierra, self-employed electrician, Dad always voted Labour. He used to vote Labour, he said, but he bought his own home, he had set up his own business, he was doing quite nicely, so he said I’ve become a Tory.”

    “Post-war Britain has seen two big changes. First, and partly as a result of reforming Labour governments, there are many more healthy, wealthy and well-educated people than before. In addition, employment has switched from traditional manufacturing industries to a more white-collar, service-based economy. The inevitable result has been that class identity has fragmented.Post-war Britain has seen two big changes. First, and partly as a result of reforming Labour governments, there are many more healthy, wealthy and well-educated people than before. In addition, employment has switched from traditional manufacturing industries to a more white-collar, service-based economy. The inevitable result has been that class identity has fragmented.
    Only about a third of the population now regard themselves as ‘working-class’. Of course it is possible still to analyse Britain in terms of a strict Marxist definition of class: but it is not very helpful to our understanding of how the country thinks and votes. In fact, of that third, many are likely not to be ‘working’ at all: these are the unemployed, pensioners, single parents – in other words, the poor.
    A party that restricts its appeal to the traditional working class will not win an election. That doesn’t entail a rejection of socialism’s traditional values: but it does mean that its appeal, and hence its policies, must address a much wider range of interests.
    Only about a third of the population now regard themselves as ‘working-class’. Of course it is possible still to analyse Britain in terms of a strict Marxist definition of class: but it is not very helpful to our understanding of how the country thinks and votes. In fact, of that third, many are likely not to be ‘working’ at all: these are the unemployed, pensioners, single parents – in other words, the poor.
    A party that restricts its appeal to the traditional working class will not win an election. That doesn’t entail a rejection of socialism’s traditional values: but it does mean that its appeal, and hence its policies, must address a much wider range of interests.”

  • Blissex
    June 3, 2020

    «The U.S. colonized ITSELF extracting its resources for corporations and their government cronies.»

    As to this two notes:

    * The USA elites/oligarchy have always felt that they are the USA, and the rest of the populace, the servant classes, just squatters. Their gated compounds, estates, ranches are the USA, the rest is indeed a colony.

    * The USA elites/oligarchy are largely the descendants of those central and east european tribes that became rich and powerful by moving always west, first into the roman empire, then into the british archipelago, and then crossed the ocean into north America, and then crossed it mile by mile.

    * When moving westward in north America the USA elites/oligarchy largely became wealthy and powerful by stripping the sparse “indian” natives of their land and untapped resources. Their problem is that they have run out of indian land and resources to extract.

    * So they have started looking for the next big source of wealth to extract, and that’s the USA middle class. They have become the new indians, and their jobs, wages, pensions, savings, social insurance, have become the new Black Hills from which to extract as much wealth as possible. Many decaying ex-middle class suburbs are becoming more like indian reservations.

  • Phatnes
    June 5, 2020

    Who’s there?

  • Phatnes
    June 24, 2020

    Late stage capitalism who?

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