talkpolitics | Entries tagged with class

Stereotypes are a truly powerful thing indeed. However, the problem with stereotypes is that they are a little bit true (as in some of x are truly y) which is what makes them so powerful. This makes it difficult to counter them - you cannot create opposite stereotypes of “girls are great at maths because they can focus better” or “boys are great at child care because they are more fun” without those too being based in truth AND realising the damage it does to the outsiders (boys hearing that girls are great at maths will conclude that boys are not good at maths, girls hearing that boys are great at child care will conclude girls are not). In every stereotype there is both a loser and a winner.

But why use stereotypes at all, you may ask? Well, it is human nature to both notice and remember commonalities... this is how stereotypes are created. It is a survival mechanism. It is actually necessary to have stereotypes in many situations.

We are creatures of narrative; we both consume and create them every waking (and otherwise) minute of every day. Before we can re-write certain narratives to improve the lives of those who live within them, we have to understand each narrative.

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johnny9fingers

I come to argue that in one of the sub-categories in this month's topic, to wit - "Elitism, aristocracy, rankism and oligarchism. The caste system" there contains a conflation of both the good and bad. No one can deny that rule by aristocracy or oligarchism is most often a bad thing, only ever justified by the alternatives being worse. A caste system also seems iniquitous. No-one should be prevented by birth from achieving or attaining excellence. But, in some ways that is my point.

Do we accept that some things require degrees of understanding and training which are not commonplace? And are those things important?

Some disciplines have fairly extreme entry conditions. Medicine and Law spring to mind without scratching those things which require extreme Maths beyond most of us. We accept an elite in terms of who we are prepared to allow to fix us when we get an operable brain tumour - one which can be fixed by the right surgeon. We accept that there are rankings of lawyers when we want someone to represent us. (If we have the money to make the choice, of course.) We accept that there is a de facto technical elite, and sometimes in some ways we may happen to be part of it.

I would contend that any elite worthy of its name should be comprised of folk who are good at things, and more specifically good at the things which society requires. But being good at things may not be sufficient, unless those things appertain directly to good government. The conclusion of which appears to me to be is that it is sequential: first it is necessary to be good at something, and then that excellence needs to be integrated into a wider learning of the world and politics.

So... In my version of the NationState game anyone can qualify to run for office by passing difficult exams, whereupon those that make the qualifying standard can get voted for by the public. No-one can stand for office who hasn't passed the examinations. Of course, then we argue about who sets the exams and who marks them etc & etc, but at least we're putting the fear of thinking into the bastards who are our politicians.

I'd say we need an elite. Just the right elite. And not an elite dependent upon the vagaries of birth or parental wealth, but an elite made up of folk of skill, ability, professional ethics, and human understanding; which will have to substitute for noble intent in the modern world. Call it a meritocracy, call it rule by the skilled or the cunning, but it is actually the rule of the intellect leavened by human need and understanding. Alas as a form of government it is as profoundly condescending as any rule will be until we are overtaken by A.I. (However I'd suggest it better than any of the previous alternatives, but probably less good than a serious A.I. would manage things - despite Professor Hawking's misgivings.)

The Piñata is up. Get your baseball bats. :)

luzribeiro

WTF is wrong with that guy who left a package of horseshit on Steve Mnuchin’s doorstep? You’re supposed to set it on fire, dammit!

I'm guessing it would have messed up the pretty wrapping paper. I think the wrapping paper was an essential part of this "political theater": you can wrap horseshit up with pretty paper and put a bow on it, but it's still just horseshit in the same way as Congress can try to market this tax giveaway to the rich as some kind of tax "relief" to the middle class, but everyone really knows what it is, just the same. It's like the analogy of trying to put lipstick on a pig.

Or he was just being responsible... You know... no open fires in California!

Oh, while we're on Mnuchin, just to put things into perspective:

Mnuchin’s Wife Goes Full Marie Antoinette in Instagram Meltdown

Mnuchin’s Wife Mocks Oregon Woman Over Lifestyle and Wealth

Steve Mnuchin’s Photos with Dollar Bills Are Everything That’s Wrong with the World

luzribeiro.livejournal.com

The White House released financial disclosures for many of its senior officials Friday — a group of some of the wealthiest people ever to join a presidential administration.

How Much People in the Trump Administration Are Worth

Given Ivanka Trump's recent decision to become an official White House employee, her financial disclosures and ethics agreements are expected to be filed later. She'll also maintain her stake in the Trump hotel in Washington even as she takes on official government duties.

At least she's the sane one in that lot. She's expected to keep her daddy in line for the most part. If anyone is able to control his insanity, it must be her.

That said, I'm not sure how and why any of the smallfolk who are said to be forming Trump's base, are still buying the myth that he's going to stand up for them. A guy who's been raised with a silver spoon in his mouth surrounds himself in his administration with fellow billionaires - and these guys are somehow supposed to stand up for the middle class? Please.

mahnmut.livejournal.com

"Trump's lavish dinner with Mitt will likely be played for laughs for a few days, but it is a symbol of something very serious — and very wrong — with Trump's transition from alleged billionaire to 45th president, who was elected by the disenfranchised, disadvantaged and forgotten Americans who genuinely struggle. Yet when Trump wasn't downing frog legs with his multi-millionaire new pal, Romney, he has been larding his cabinet with super-wealthy Republican loyalists who have completely ignored the needs of the very people who elected Trump."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-running-conservative-tank-frog-leg-time-article-1.2892069

Well, here's a saying that I've heard around here. Not the one eating the pie is the crazy one, it's the ones who gave'm the pie in the first place.

You guys chose this guy. Well, a minority of you that was significant enough to make him your leader. Now you don't get to whine about it when he screws you over. Or maybe you do? Because that's what he'll do. He'll fuck you up big time. He may seem to believe that a country is run like a business, which may be a reason why he's filling his cabinet with fellow wealthy folks. Or maybe it's really because these are the only sort of guys he can trust, I don't know which is more valid. Or maybe it's just that he's part of an oligarchy that he's now bringing into position to be calling the shots from now on (not that they haven't been running the party for, like, forever - but now they'll be doing it openly anyway).

Point is, if ordinary "real Americans" from the small rural areas of core America who largely propped this guy up into power are really expecting him to stand up for them and defend their interests because he promised so - they're in for quite a cold shower in the next four to eight years. He was brought by hopes for changing things and snatching America out of the paws of the greedy detached elites - and when those hopes get dashed by the realization that no, the greedy detached elites are not only not going anywhere but they're getting even more entrenched into power with their champion at the helm... well, I'm seeing big, BIG trouble coming up at the horizon. Possibly political turmoil, and I'm not ruling out massive violence either. Perhaps the revolution that Bernie professed will have to turn ugly before things get really better and constructive. In a way though, that would be the catharsis that any society in trouble needs in order to cleanse itself and move on. And perhaps Trump's ascent, and that of all those frog-leg-munching gazillionaires around him by extension, is the painful, yet necessary catalyst that would precipitate this process.

Bottom-line: I get the feeling that something will snap, and soon. But maybe that's not such a bad thing after all.

jerseycajun.livejournal.com

A little bit of back-story on this. Going back to last August, I had been visiting relatives in the Dallas area. We wanted to watch a movie after dinner, and since the one we wanted wasn't yet available for streaming, we went with the highly rated (by users and critics) "Snowpiercer".

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So: for those who have seen the film or who didn't mind being spoiled above, how do you read/reconcile these aspects? Do you read the film's message less harshly, or altogether differently? When does what the author of an artist work is saying on the face of it, overshadow and overwhelm the artistic merit of the film in question? The film is very well made, I can't deny, in many artistic aspects and in its characterizations, writing and performances.

All told, my relatives and I would have preferred our first choice, another Chris Evans film "Winter Soldier", than this. We kind of laughed at the ending, not even realizing if the ending was the actual ending, for a few moments, but the more I gave it thought the more disturbing the implications became.

*edit* Added offtopic to the tags, because it's Friday, and I'm not certain there's enough political meat here as opposed to discussion of the film itself and criticism of that. Either way: Bases covered.

ddstory.livejournal.com

They come to Europe in search of a better life and more freedom, just like most refugees and/or economic/political immigrants. But they do not arrive in broken boats at the shores of Lampedusa along with the rest of the hordes of miserable refugees who dwell in total squalor. No, these guys fly in business class of the best air companies, and thus they land in places like Malta, Lisbon or Andalucia. They're not poor by any standard, just on the contrary. They're the millionaires from non-European countries who want to share the privilege of any EU citizen to be able to move freely across Europe.

There've been such programs in Europe for quite a while, allowing such wealthy (and generous) foreign investors to obtain a EU passport pretty fast. UK was among the first European countries to grant citizenship to wealthy people from third countries. And since 2012, there's been a real race across Europe for attracting rich people from all around the world. A number of countries are trying to entice the "wealthy aliens" with increasingly attractive offers at the so called "nationality market".

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abomvubuso.livejournal.com

I've been hearing the following argument (or something to the same effect) quite frequently as of late,

"Putin's tolerance of economic hardship is fairly high, considering the fact that "hardship" pretty much defines the Russian economy. And we have to admit that EU and American tolerance for the kind of pushback available to the man who supplies most of Europe's natural gas is, to put it politely, lacking."

Well, except Russia is gradually changing, and probably mostly due to Putin's domestic policies (which might ironically end up biting him on the ass eventually: see below).

See, there's a middle class in Russia now. The ones pushing from below the oligarchs who are effectively pulling the strings. Deprive them of their nice living conditions and their newly asserted position, and revert to Hardship Default Mode, and watch how heads start rolling. Starting with the chief head. I've met some of those guys. Talked with them, been doing business with them. I can tell you Putin is not exactly the messiah in the eyes of his people that the media are trying to present him as. He's just their most convenient option - for the time being.

The Russian middle class are what drives the Russian economy, apart from energy resource exports. They're the 2nd level beneath the oligarchic network which holds that country together, and sustains the regime. That Putin is still in power, is because he's giving them what they want. The moment he stops to, he's done. And no, I don't mean through means of revolution. There are other tools for influencing one's presumably omnipotent power structure. Some have started voting with their feet (and wallets). Others might be contemplating if there aren't, by chance, better options in terms of a ruler. Granted, they might not have found one for the time being, but that's not because Putin is so awesome - it's because his opponents are much weaker, and the oligarchic establishment in the country finds the current status quo preferable. That is, for now.

ddstory.livejournal.com

While we're on that pesky class thingy that apparently nobody seems to bother thinking or talking about, let's begin with this segment.

'The Daily Show' Mocks the Hypocrisy of the Davos Forum

Yeah, yeah, t'is the Daily Show. The liburl mouthpiece, right. Ya know, that place where today's liburl youth are taking their notions from. But do bear with me.

"Thursday night's Daily Show swiveled right past the latest Bieber affair to take on another scandal of decadence and excess: namely, the ongoing World Economic Forum's annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland.

The conference at the fancy ski resort is supposedly taking on the issue of income inequality, but Jon Stewart exposed the goofy hypocrisy of the whole thing: "Okay, so a group of the world's wealthiest people get together in a secluded mountain enclave to discuss concerns over income inequality," he scoffed. "Hmm.""

[Part 1 - Mountain Few] [Part 2 - The Money Oscars]

Yep. That's right. The World Economic Forum is currently underway in the remote Alpine resort of Davos here in Switzerland, and the criticism is back again, too. The main accusation being that the summit is merely a place for the rich elite to compare their dick sizes (see next paragraph below), rather than to forge any plans for actually tackling the problems they claim to be discussing. Income inequality, in this case. In a nutshell, the super-wealthy have gathered in a secluded place, bathing in luxury, surrounding themselves with friendly journalists, and talking about how they could help the poor by... wait for it... closing the gap between themselves and said poor. Indeed, Jon, hmmmmm.

( Talking of dicks (literally) )

enders-shadow.livejournal.com

This will illuminate some very clear battle lines, in, what is sadly, the only war. The class war.

I want to share my support about something. Alan Grayson, (D-FL) has introduced a bill to the house of reps that, we all know, will not pass (both cause he is a Dem in the house, but also cause it's a bill that megacorps would fight against, if it actually had a snowballs chance in hell). But I would like it to. The bill I speak of, would mandate, all big employers to give their full-time workers, one week of paid vacation a year.

This is a very basic standard of employment, IMO. The last job I had that gave benefits, gave two weeks vacation, with some personal+sick days too. It did not seem overly generous and as I understand it, such basic requirements are frequently met in more civilized countries than the US.

So here I put this out there, and go ahead and try to sway me, if you disagree with me. But if you do, offer something more substantial than "Govt shouldn't regulate private business" cause I categorically reject that idea. So unless you have a reason why this particular govt regulation is bad, and not just regulation in general is bad, don't try that line of reasoning.

Now, for those who agree with me, got any solid evidence for *why* this is a good thing? Aside from keeping workers from going crazy (all work and no play, make johnny go CRAZY) I know I've heard stats about workplace efficiency and things of that nature, but I will be honest, that data is not why I consider it important. I consider it important because every single week of every single year should not be focused on survival. Once in awhile, those who live near the bottom of the barrel, deserve a chance to rest, to put their feet up, and enjoy life. Just one week a year. 1/52. Less than 2%.

So go ahead, the battle lines are drawn, and I am sad to say, I expect very few surprises when I see who comments and which side of this fight they are one. But please, shock me, or convince me--but do so with data.

mahnmut.livejournal.com

This story is dedicated to a brave warrior for justice and social equality, and a true defender of the poor and oppressed masses.

Dear comrades and comradesses! If you thought class warfare was never present in children's tales, then you had been in delusion for far too long. But now, being the generous bloody-pinko-leftie™ that I am, I'm gonna open your eyes for the truth and direct your attention in the only true direction: namely, the leftist, class and progressive one.

( Case in point: the Little Red Riding Hood. )

sophia-sadek.livejournal.com

Science and philosophy teach us that if we want to understand something we must look past the surface phenomena to find an underlying cause or essence. The Sun appears to move across the sky, but this is actually a manifestation of the movement of the Earth. What we see misleads us into drawing a false conclusion. When an institution depends on the false conclusion, the truth poses a threat to the integrity of the institution.

One such institution is that of chattel slavery where a class of people are forced against their wills to serve another class of people. This peculiar institution uses a very specific type of property relationship. The servants are the property of those they serve as if they were mere beasts of burden. The relationship demands that the owners disrespect the wills of their servants. Furthermore the servants are forced to pretend that they respect the owners. Showing respect is more important that experiencing respect.

Looking at the surface of this political and economic system one might see the material poverty of the servants and the opulence of the owners. One might see the agony of the servants as they are abused by the owning class and its hired help. One might see the whip, the shackles and the chains that are used in this brutal venture. Without these phenomena one might conclude that slavery has been abolished. A deeper look at the essence of the institution is required in order to determine the effectiveness of abolition.

Is there still a class of property owners who disrespect those who serve them? Is there still a class of people who feel compelled to show respect for another class of despicable people? When coercion replaces force does it really improve matters? Does the life and death of a child of property owners matter more than the life and death of the child of those without property?

Here in San Francisco the Sheriff's department is trying to fend off a law suit in Federal court by a man who was brutally mistreated by a deputy. The event was captured in a video recording. By the description there was no way that the deputy could claim self-defense. This is the kind of treatment that might be expected at the hands of a slave plantation employee. The perpetrator would have gotten a slap on the wrist for a crime that would have put the average Joe behind bars, but the previous Sheriff pulled the plug on the wrist slap. The city's attorney seems to be more interested in conserving the taxpayers' money than he is in seeing justice done.

Links: Chris Roberts on the Darrell Hunter suit. KTVU on the Federal ruling permitting the suit.

peristaltor.livejournal.com

“1 At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts. 2 And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the Lord’s release."

Deuteronomy 15: 1-2

I've been lying quietly as a few in this community actually defend the practice of lending money at interest, even at extreme interest. In that linked comment,

badlydrawnjeff even went so far as to say, "The system and the banks aren't the problem here." Though he is entitled to his opinion, I still disagree.

( This is an LJ Cut. Some say they are )

peristaltor.livejournal.com

Several years ago, I tripped upon something that puzzled me.

Through family tales passed down through the generations and backed by literally boxes of original documents including diaries and correspondence, Randall Keynes' book Annie's Box recounts the family life of his great-great grandparents, Charles and Emma Darwin. At one point, the Darwins had to decide how to best educate their children, seven of them and the number growing. To properly teach the girls, Emma thought it best to hire a governess. ( Bored yet? It gets better. )

stewstewstewdio.livejournal.com

The laws are stacked for the wealthy. - Jesse Jackson

In line with this month’s topic, I have included a post with a graph(ic), once again purloined from Google+. I know it doesn’t follow the format for a chart or graph, but it does have pictures and numbers and stuff.

As could probably be expected, Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal published an article explaining the implications of the Fiscal Cliff deal on the wealthy. The saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words. The graphic in this post actually came from the article that was put in the Journal.

It is fun to note the forlorn looks on the faces of the oppressed wealthy taxpayers in the graphic; as well as noting that the one group in the graphic that doesn’t have a tax increase is characterized as a retired black couple. Also, investment income is thrown into the mix to make the examples more ~~Romneyfied~~ dignified.

Along with the technical details of the tax package, I found it interesting that some of the provisions were listed as highly complicated, as if the wealthy wouldn’t be able to afford the $59.95 for Turbo Tax or some other tax preparation software. It would probably surprise me even more if the wealthy didn’t have a tax accountant do their taxes and tax dodge planning for them.

The article makes a point of noting that all working people will be paying an additional 2% in taxes for Social Security because the tax holiday package was allowed to expire as intended at inception. However, it failed to mention that most wage earners with six figure salaries will be exceeding the Social Security cap, and therefore will be less affected by this tax than most people.

This article may be tl;dr for many, but I think the graphic in the article merited a post all by itself.

luvdovz.livejournal.com

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2010/wp10268.pdf

In their paper about the relationship between inequality and crises, the economists Michael Kumhof and Romain Rancière try to go beyond the simplistic notion that economic crises are merely a result of personal incompetence plus greed plus bad loans. They look at one of the less researched aspects of the US market, which otherwise is closely related to bank failures - namely, the level of financial disparity between the various segments of society. They analyzed the data for the last century, particularly the periods of the greatest crises, 1929 and 2008. In both cases they've found that the gap between wealthy and poor had opened beyond a certain critical level. Their conclusion: there's a pattern showing that whenever the top 5% possess 34% of the total wealth or more, the level of private loans would tend to double within a short period of time.

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nairiporter.livejournal.com

Rampant poverty on one side, and a tiny wealthy elite on the other. And between them: nothing. That is the notion of Africa for many people around the world. At least this is what it used to be - until now. But today, in many African countries a middle class is being formed, and it is going to transform the continent.

There is no doubt now that the world's poorest continent is changing. A new layer of society is emerging, one that until very recently was neglected and overlooked, and irrelevant. Most Western media usually speak of two types of Africans - the poor who suffer starvation, disease and war, and the rich oligarchs and dictators who spend their spare time and their money from their Swiss bank accounts on the French Riviera. People from outside Africa have been fixated on these two extreme opposites, and the only thing they were concerned about (and rightly so), were Africa's problems: AIDS, ethnic conflicts, migration, social tensions, exploitation of natural resources, drought and the expanding deserts. "Africa is being referred to in such a way that it either evokes compassion and a call for help, or in the worst case, animosity and disdain. But neither approach corresponds to its current development", Jean-Michel Severino writes in his book Africa's Moment.

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paft.livejournal.com

From “The Sharp Sudden Decline of America’s Middle Class” in Rolling Stone Magazine:

"I didn't wear my best clothes, but I wore a light blouse and jeans, and I guess I was just a little too dressed up," she recalls. "Because the woman just looked at me and said, 'Are you in a crisis? Your application says you're in a crisis.' I said, 'I'm living in a van and I don't have a job. I have a little bit of money, but it's going to go fast.' The woman said, 'You have $500. You're not in a crisis if you have $500.' She said anything more than $50 was too much."

If Adkins had filled her tank with gas, done her laundry, eaten a meal, and paid her car insurance and phone bills, it would have used up half of everything she had. But emergency food stamps, she was told, are not for imminent emergencies; they're for emergencies already in progress. You can't get them if you can make it through the next week – you have to be down to the last few meals you can afford.

"The money's for my phone, it's for gas, it's for my bills," Adkins said.

"Why are you in a crisis," the woman asked, "when you have a phone bill?"

"I need the phone so I can get a job. You can't look for a job without a phone."

"Why do you have bills?" the woman asked. "I thought you didn't have a place to live."

"I live in my van," Adkins said. "I have insurance."

"You have a 2007 van," the woman said. "I think you need to sell that."

"Please, I need a break," Adkins said. "I need some help. I need to take a shower."

"Why didn't you have a shower?"

"I live in a van."

The woman told Adkins to come back when she really needed help.

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nairiporter.livejournal.com

There were a couple of posts here recently, touching on the subject of the Russian middle class. Well, I would like to expand a bit beyond just one country. We could say that for the last decade or so the world has become a witness of an invisible revolution. More than a billion people have joined the rising middle class. Of course by the Western standard these people are hardly wealthy, but still they have turned their back to poverty, they have more time and resources at their disposal, and that goes beyond the mere survival.

Purely statistically, the surge of this middle class is mostly due to huge emerging economies like China and India, and the trend will probably continue despite the global financial crisis. Up till now nearly half of the middle class worldwide used to live in Europe and North America, and some other wealthy countries (Australia, Japan, Singapore, etc). But the projections show that by 2030, 2/3 of the world's middle class, which is expected to number 5 billion people, will already be from the developing countries, mostly the emerging economies in Asia and South America.

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paft.livejournal.com

The Daily Caller is, as far as I know, not a humor site along the lines of The Onion. According to Wikipedia – I looked to make absolutely sure – it’s an ostensibly neutral site with right wing leanings and contributors that include Arianna Huffington and Newt Gingrich. So the Brion McClanahan piece, “Damn, I Just Want some Jam” is apparently meant to be taken seriously. It's possible, as Media Matters has speculated, that the author is writing what he imagines to be satire, but if that’s the case, it’s someone who doesn’t have a clear idea of exactly what satire is.

It opens with a rather rambling reference to a rap song about an EBT card the author heard a few months ago, touches on the singer’s leather jacket, shifts to Jesse Jackson, President Obama and food stamps, then announces in the next paragraph, “These are fine examples of what many Americans witness on a regular basis.” We then read the following anecdote about an adventure he and his wife had in the checkout line at Walmart. Stop me if you’ve heard this one…

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Credits & Style Info

Talk Politics.

A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods

MONTHLY TOPIC:
The Return of Power Politics

DAILY QUOTE:

"The NATO charter clearly says that any attack on a NATO member shall be treated, by all members, as an attack against all. So that means that, if we attack Greenland, we'll be obligated to go to war against ... ourselves! Gee, that's scary. You really don't want to go to war with the United States. They're insane!"

(edelsont)

February 2026

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Talk politics.

A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods.

Entries tagged with class

On-topic: What drives stereotypes, cultural and otherwise

Monthly Topic - Social Injustice

Horseshit was the least he should've gotten

But they're going to defend the little guy

A taste of what is to come... oh, and frog legs

Snowpiercer: - Or when doesPolitical allegory overwhelm artistic merits? (SPOILERS)

Trading citizenship

Putin vs his own middle class

Tales of winterland. As the wolves talk about helping the sheep.

One week paid vacation per year. Basic worker right or outrageous govt regulation?

Friday gibberish. The allegory of class warfare in the Little Red Riding Hood

Rendering Unto Caesar: Slavery 101‏

A Forced Return to Ancient Wisdom

Education, For The Masses and The Classes

The Nouveau Poor

When the gap reaches a critical width

Africa's new middle class

"Not Suffering Enough"

The invisible revolution

Ka-CHING!

Credits & Style Info

Links

February 2026

Summary