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by DoughnutHole
1271 days ago
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Why is idea of decreasing inequality between the lower and middle classes so offensive? This isn't a zero-sum game. The college-educated middle class aren't losing anything here - their wages went up too. All that's happening is that the wages of low income workers increased more. This is great if you actually care about the quality of life of low income people. The difference between middle class people like me and the lower class in terms of the meeting of basic needs (food, health, education, housing) is enormous - far bigger than the gulf in quality of life between me and Jeff Bezos. I don't have a crippling yacht addiction I desperately need to deal with. |
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It's painting the middle classes as the source of the inequality. That's what leads to the zero-sum thinking that lets the upper classes sit back and laugh while we fight.
Was the purpose of this article to paint that picture? Hard to say. But when you read a lot about smug Silicon Valley programmers and their six-figure salaries and how different that is from the poor people who have to root through their garbage (whoops, no, they made that illegal), and rather less about the very unsexy carried interest loophole and other means by which the billionaires of the world grow and maintain their wealth, the intention behind that disparity becomes less important than the impact.