by Thomas Klikauer & Catherine Link Even though Marx’s well-acknowledged truth that capitalism creates two classes is over 160 years old, class remains a much debated issue. Marx’s idea is relatively straightforward. In capitalism, there are two classes: firstly, there are workers or proletariat. Workers need to sell their ability to work as workers don’t own any means of production, or the ability to[Read More...]
The fundamental problem of political philosophy is still precisely the one that Spinoza saw so clearly (and that Wilhelm Reich rediscovered): Why do men fight for their servitude as stubbornly as though it were their salvation?
— Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Ant-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, 1972
Passing through the vestibules of airports, one experiences the quotidian toil of modern neoliberal life. Even as one’s spirits rise at the thought of a fresh destination, or perhaps a familiar one, the vast task force of transit works fastidiously about you.
INDIANAPOLIS – On a recent weekday afternoon in March, the Goodwill store on this city’s east side was buzzing with nearly two dozen shoppers – young and old, black and white, Latino and Asian — rummaging excitedly through the rows of blue jeans, piles of shoes, and shelves of luggage, books, and picture frames in a hunt for the best bargains to be had.
Back in the 1980s, the decade that saw researchers start detailing America’s increasing concentration of income and wealth, flacks for the emerging Reagan economic order disdainfully dismissed the significance of the alarming new data.
A worker takes part in the manufacturing of hats the Bollman Hat Company in Adamstown, Pa. (AP/Matt Rourke)
America’s Common Man exists no more – gone and forgotten. Once he was lauded as the salt of the earth – our country’s embodiment of what made us special, of what made the great democratic experiment successful, of what made of the United States the magnetic pole for the world’s masses.
When certain groups win favors from politicians at the expense of everyone else, it is an especially harsh affront to the economic freedom of the poor. When policy drives prices up, especially in the case of commodities, the higher prices are most difficult for the poor, who are already stretched thin, to absorb.
Having explored a good bit of Plato, we move to his greatest student, Aristotle to understand his metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and civil polity. What about universals and particulars? Can we make use of Aristotle’s “god,” the unmoved mover? What are the flaws and problems in his thought? Are there dialectical tensions in Aristotle? The full video and archives can be obtained by subscribing to JaysAnalysis at the PayPal links below.
Marijo Beckman greeted Black Friday shoppers at a Boynton Beach,Fla. Walmart store Friday, Nov. 28, 2014.
Published in partnership with Shadowproof.
For the first time in more than four decades, middle class households have lost their majority status in the U.S.
The post The Middle Class is Officially Disappearing appeared first on The Anti-Media.
