We’re hearing a lot of complaints from the punditry about class warfare in the current presidential campaign. Get used to it. We’ll be seeing a lot more class warfare in the next few years.
John Edwards started it in 2004 with his “two Americas” speech that demonized the wealthy, and President Obama made it his signature issue with a boost from the Occupy movement. But conflict between rich and poor is mostly political fiction.
The real class divide is between people who work for the government and those who do not. Government employees have evolved into a privileged class thanks to powerful unions, irresponsible public officials and the good intentions of voters. Public employees, once underpaid, have become significantly more prosperous than their counterparts in the private economy.
Now the cumulative impact of public employee pension and benefit largess is forcing cities to reduce services to pay their retirees. Some have been forced into bankruptcy, and this may spread to states like California and Illinois.
At the same time, the recession wiped out millions of private-sector jobs while the vast majority of public employees kept theirs. Diminished retirement savings are forcing more private-sector employees to defer retirement while state and local government employees continue to retire early with defined-benefit pensions.
The public-private divide is becoming a dominant force in politics, with public employee unions supporting the Democratic party and business interests aligned with the Republicans. A Wall Street Journal column characterized this as a fundamental conflict between two economies.
The Obama administration sharpened the class divide by devoting most of the 2009 federal stimulus to state and local government jobs rather than infrastructure projects that would have increased private sector employment. Some politicians are calling for a second stimulus to re-hire government employees who were laid off when the first stimulus ran out.
The public-private disparity is erupting into conflict as voters push back in places like Wisconsin and California. Unions are compromising in a few cases but largely resist any attempt to ask their members to share the community’s sacrifice. The high esteem in which teachers, firefighters and police officers are held may erode as the intransigence of their unions drives cities into bankruptcy and blocks school reform.
Whooping up the voters to increase taxes on the wealthy may score a few political points. The more potent pocketbook issue is how much voters are willing to sacrifice to support government employees who are wealthier and more secure than they are.
The next round of class warfare
We’re hearing a lot of complaints from the punditry about class warfare in the current presidential campaign. Get used to it. We’ll be seeing a lot more class warfare in the next few years.
John Edwards started it in 2004 with his “two Americas” speech that demonized the wealthy, and President Obama made it his signature issue with a boost from the Occupy movement. But conflict between rich and poor is mostly political fiction.
The real class divide is between people who work for the government and those who do not. Government employees have evolved into a privileged class thanks to powerful unions, irresponsible public officials and the good intentions of voters. Public employees, once underpaid, have become significantly more prosperous than their counterparts in the private economy.
Now the cumulative impact of public employee pension and benefit largess is forcing cities to reduce services to pay their retirees. Some have been forced into bankruptcy, and this may spread to states like California and Illinois.
At the same time, the recession wiped out millions of private-sector jobs while the vast majority of public employees kept theirs. Diminished retirement savings are forcing more private-sector employees to defer retirement while state and local government employees continue to retire early with defined-benefit pensions.
The public-private divide is becoming a dominant force in politics, with public employee unions supporting the Democratic party and business interests aligned with the Republicans. A Wall Street Journal column characterized this as a fundamental conflict between two economies.
The Obama administration sharpened the class divide by devoting most of the 2009 federal stimulus to state and local government jobs rather than infrastructure projects that would have increased private sector employment. Some politicians are calling for a second stimulus to re-hire government employees who were laid off when the first stimulus ran out.
The public-private disparity is erupting into conflict as voters push back in places like Wisconsin and California. Unions are compromising in a few cases but largely resist any attempt to ask their members to share the community’s sacrifice. The high esteem in which teachers, firefighters and police officers are held may erode as the intransigence of their unions drives cities into bankruptcy and blocks school reform.
Whooping up the voters to increase taxes on the wealthy may score a few political points. The more potent pocketbook issue is how much voters are willing to sacrifice to support government employees who are wealthier and more secure than they are.
Share this: