Class Struggle
American workers have a chance to be heard.
by JIM WEBB The most important--and unfortunately the least debated--issue in politics today is our society's steady drift toward a class-based system, the likes of which we have not seen since the 19th century. America's top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. It is not unfair to say that they are literally living in a different country. Few among them send their children to public schools; fewer still send their loved ones to fight our wars. They own most of our stocks, making the stock market an unreliable indicator of the economic health of working people. The top 1% now takes in an astounding 16% of national income, up from 8% in 1980. The tax codes protect them, just as they protect corporate America, through a vast system of loopholes.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST
Comments
No that's what I'm talking about!
I have long been at war with my liberal friends over just this possibilty. Jim Webb is an economic liberal and a social conservative. Just the combination I have classified as a Populist. And reading this, perhaps my liberal friends can at last see what I have been going on about all this time!
lwd