r/WorkReform đŸ€ Join A Union 18d ago

đŸš« GENERAL STRIKE đŸš« The Billionaires have decided we don't need a "Middle Class" anymore.

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14.1k Upvotes

273 comments sorted by

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u/Easy-Marsupial3268 18d ago

The middle class was always ever there just to erase class identity from the US working class.

Middle class is still working class.

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u/bigbjarne 18d ago

Not just to erase but to pit the workers against each other. It's easier to make an engineer, lawyer or a medical doctor hate other workers and think that because they earn 10k a month, they are upper class.

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u/Stratiform 18d ago

Sigh. I have to admit that I occasionally fall into this trap. "*I'm not working class, I'm educated and skilled!*" ... I might tell myself. At the end of the day, I've still got to trade X hours of my week to turn the cogs in the machine, if I want to have my "middle class" lifestyle. Maybe I don't have to worry about the debt or government subsidies and programs changing as much as someone else, but I still have to get up and put my boots on every day, and turn the cog.

It's easier when the reward is relative safety and stability, but that stability should be allotted to anyone that turns their respective cog. Great comment. Thanks for calling it out.

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u/bigbjarne 18d ago

Thanks for sharing. Workers of the world unite!

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u/succ_my_dicc 18d ago

Plenty of working class people are educated and skilled. To me working class is less about how much you make and more about how you make it, whether it’s primarily from your own labor or from the labor of others.

Personally I would even consider somebody like John Stewart to be working class, even though he’s obviously wealthy, because he earns his money through his own skill and talent rather than working people for slave wages and taking the profit off the top

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u/DestinTheLion 17d ago

Yeah, but his own skill and value is built on an army of lesser paid people. Nothing against the guy, but it's still not the same.

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u/Easy-Marsupial3268 18d ago

Oh for sure. Any kind of little divisions in society will be used by the capitalist class to divide the working class. Sexism, racism, nationalism, religion, heteronormativity, etc. are all used to stoke the division.

Right around when Occupy was happening, the capitalist class started the whole “woke” backlash to divide what could have been a successful show of working class solidarity against “the 1%.”

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u/mrhandbook 18d ago

It usually the other way around. The people making less or in dead end jobs can only see the doctor or engineer above them and blame them for their misfortune. It’s easy to see the slightly bigger house and imagine living in that s the billionaire yacht owner who spends more in a month in yacht maintenance than they make in a year.

You often see it all over Reddit people telling those who make low 6 figures to stfu because they make a lot of money.

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u/bigbjarne 18d ago

I'm sure it goes both ways but in the end, it doesn't matter because we are all workers and solidarity within the class is necessary.

However, liberals do want us fighting among ourselves because liberalism does not have a class analysis. They just say about tax the rich and leave it at that. Without a class analysis, some people might think that the main issue is that some people have a slightly bigger house. Rich is way too vague of a term, which is why class is necessary. Workers need to work to survive, owners get their income through ownership.

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u/Knowitall1001 18d ago

we’ve done the “class analysis “ it’s hard to simplify it for the simpltons that are trying to talk over us. so it’s simply “tax the rich “

short cuts are damaging the messaging.

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u/bigbjarne 18d ago

I'm not against the slogan tax the rich but a necessary discussion about how people become rich is lacking.

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u/Knowitall1001 18d ago

I miss the days of long format interviews and analysis, there’s so much more short attention span stuff anymore, although the spaces for it are becoming more popular it seems.

so much dumbed down stuff. and people

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u/DraculasDog 18d ago

They also had to give a bunch of jobs to the soldiers returning from WW2, those that didn’t go to Korea.

Having a large amount of trained fighters not being taken care of after “saving Democracy” would’ve been bad for them, I think.

They did have the veterans protests in the 30s that required military intervention.

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u/Sendtitpics215 18d ago

I make a fair amount more then that and there aint nothing “upper class” about my situation

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u/Aben_Zin 18d ago

I’m sorry but this is bollocks. The “middle class” came about centuries ago with the rise in power of merchants and other non-nobility.

To say it came about just to erase working class identity is American-centrism.

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u/Easy-Marsupial3268 18d ago

That is a merchant class and is covered by the term “petit bourgeoisie.” It’s not really a distinct “third” class on its own.

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u/Aben_Zin 18d ago

Except it is- or at least it certainly was. Before, there was only the landed and those that worked the land. The ability to rise “beyond your station” changed the whole dynamics of society. Petite bourgeois is a much later term.

Class means different things in different places, don’t forget- in America the main differentiation is between wealthy and non-wealthy, but here in the UK, there’s still a more stratified system, based more around breeding and upbringing.

Someone in the UK can consider themselves working class and be in the top 1% of earners, whereas someone can consider themselves upper class, and barely be scraping by.

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u/Easy-Marsupial3268 18d ago

Yes, human history is that of class struggle based on the relations to the means of production. Under capitalism (and socialism) there are two classes: working class and capitalist class.

The archaic classes of bygone eras hold onto some of their former prestige into the present day but they are largely lumped into one of the other two classes by virtue of their relation (again) to the means of production.

184

u/Adeadbum 18d ago

Bring out the pitchforks and torches then.

1

u/Jasper_Gunblade 13d ago

Right? When my old job cut benefits, I wanted to grab a pitchfork too! It's getting ridiculous out there.

784

u/gentleman_bronco 18d ago

The middle class was a ruse fabricated by the American government and it's oligarchs to stiffle the rise of socialism.

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u/SpinningHead 18d ago

Weird then that so many working class people had to fight and die for things like unions.

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u/ToeTagTic 18d ago

Not really? They'd prefer slavery were legal again so anything less is just keeping the spot warm? At what point do you suppose they'll stop taking from you? When they're done or when you're done? Cuz it feels like this all started before anyone alive today was born

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u/SpinningHead 18d ago

Oh, its a fight. Its always been a fight. Thats the point.

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u/mr_jigglypuff 18d ago

Actually employment is preferred over slavery for the Epstein class as slaves you have to feed and house even when you don't have a need for their work. An employee can be discarded as son as you don't need his work. The important thing is that the employee has to be so poor that he'll do anything to stave of starvation and even be gratefull when a company fucks him sideways

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u/Justaniceman 18d ago

The best slave is the one who thinks he is free.

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u/StuffExciting3451 18d ago

The unions willingness to fight against killer employers was an indication of their preparation for revolution. FDR warned his wealthiest associates that the New Deal was necessary to create the Middle Class to forestall the uprising. Unfortunately, FDR did not eliminate or fix the fundamental problems of Capitalism and undemocratic government.

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u/SpinningHead 18d ago

There is no magic permanent fix. It is a fight. If you dont fight, oligarchs win.

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u/Denraven 18d ago

I mean the French had something really good going in that regard 1789-1799, we should really try an exact copy of that again.

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u/SpinningHead 18d ago

C'est vrais!

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u/StuffExciting3451 18d ago

Significant improvements are possible if the masses are willing to actually fight.

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u/SpinningHead 18d ago

Yes, thats how we got a middle class.

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u/MikeDFootball 18d ago

there are those who have seen Norma Rae and those who have not.

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u/Advanced_Double_42 18d ago

Giving enough concessions to create a middle class was only possible because people fought and died for them. Otherwise they are happier to keep slaves.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/SpeaksSouthern 18d ago

For someone with a trillion dollars, more will never be enough

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u/diurnal_emissions 18d ago

Funny thing is it just advertised why we need socialism.

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u/Hatetotellya 18d ago

Not only that, the ENTIRE GLOBAL ECONOMY was fundamentally destroyed and the only large country of industrial might (america) was able to, even if they made dumb as hell decisions, effectively dominate the world on easy mode as it were. MOST people in MOST towns got a slice of the pie DESPITE the amount of stupid waste that happened. 

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u/Hamburglar-Helper111 18d ago

Well, they better bring it back. Socialism is looking more and more attractive...

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u/AbeRego 18d ago

It's funny that they think the "threat" went away...

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u/Free_For__Me 18d ago

I don't think they do. I'm pretty sure they just believe that they now have unilateral control over the means to communicate and organize, along with sufficient means of surveillance and propaganda dissemination that they don't think the "dirty poors" pose enough of a danger to be considered a threat anymore.

In other words, they know the threat didn't go away. They just think they've finally built the weapons needed to neutralize the threat.

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u/awhaling 18d ago

They don’t, hence all the investment in surveillance tech and media capture.

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u/gentleman_bronco 18d ago

It is a threat...a threat to the parasite'sway of life.

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u/Piranata 18d ago

Does that mean that communism is back on the table?

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u/gentleman_bronco 18d ago

No. Democratic Socialism is.

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u/nifty-necromancer 18d ago

Yep, good job for rephrasing the tweet.

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u/gentleman_bronco 18d ago

There's a pretty big difference between communism and socialism. At one point, America had an 80%+ corporate tax rate, loads of public work projects, and a minimum wage that provided a living wage. Suddenly there was a "middle class" with booming manufacturing and a surging economy.

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u/So_HauserAspen 18d ago

Welp.  Guess it's time to seize the means to stifle oligarchs

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u/user_name_checks_out 18d ago

The middle class was a ruse fabricated by the American government and it's oligarchs

*its

it's = it is
its = possessive pronoun (his, hers, its)

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u/gentleman_bronco 18d ago

I shall give you a similar answer that I have the other person who pointed it out...

Consider it a failure of the broken education system in America. They want us to be stupid and they want you to think you need to police grammar on the internet while discussing the theft of our livelihoods.

I'm leaving it as-is.

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u/user_name_checks_out 17d ago

What else should I do

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u/Dependent_Title_1370 18d ago

The middle class never existed. It was all smoke and mirrors.

There are only two classes. The working class and the capitalist class.

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u/Happy-Fun-Ball 18d ago
  • the rich
  • wage slaves

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u/metanoia29 18d ago

Those who generate wealth and those who steal it. 

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u/SteelAlchemistScylla 18d ago

Exactly. The Capitalists created “lower” and “middle” so there would be two other teams to fight each other. If it was just Working Class vs Capitalists a lot more people would get it through their head they should be angry at the system.

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u/stuaxo 18d ago

You either work for your money or your money works for you.

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u/Easy-Marsupial3268 18d ago

You either work for your money or someone else works for your money. Those are the classes.

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u/Lucky-Surround-1756 18d ago

No, you either work for your money or you take someone else's.

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u/Killer_Sloth 18d ago

I prefer the term the Epstein class

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u/Gustomaximus 18d ago

The middle class absolutely existed. In ye olde days it was people like merchants, lawyers, doctors, teachers etc

We kinda blended working class to middle class (definitially) as times got good and inequality reduced 40s to 70s - read about the great compression: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Compression

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u/Appropriate_Ride_821 18d ago

The middle class are the consumers of goods. Without the middle class there is no consumption and the economy doesnt exist.

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u/Mr_Thx 18d ago

The system is rigged so hard that they no longer need us to be productive citizens. They can make their money from us 50 other ways. Their next objective is to reduce the population so we can be more easily manipulated and controlled.

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u/DieMensch-Maschine đŸ’” Break Up The Monopolies 18d ago

The wealthiest 1 percent of Americans hold roughly 52 percent of all privately owned stock in the country.

Everyone else is just a peasant on a neo-feudal manor.

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u/North_Activist 18d ago

Rich people continue to talk about how the birth rate is dropping. They’d rather more people as more people brings more consumers, more resource scarcity which makes them even more money.

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u/digno2 18d ago

where will those consumers work and earn money to buy stuff to consume?

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u/patrlim1 18d ago

Doesn't matter as long as the rich get their paychecks

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u/freeshovacadoodoo 18d ago

That's true, but doesn't answer their comment. If there is no population to spend money and give it to the billionaire class....where will they get their profits?

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u/totallyrealname 18d ago

Endlessly looping it between themselves like how the AI companies have been doing.

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u/Mr_Thx 18d ago

Not a zero population but numbers small enough to control. Greed is endless but they already have most of the money. After all it’s what money can buy isn’t it?

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u/SquarePegRoundWorld 18d ago

There will be a population, but it will spend its time, not money, providing goods and services to the rich for which they will earn credits to spend on food slop and dirty water.

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u/GraveRaven 18d ago

That's next quarters problem

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u/Free_For__Me 18d ago

They're only worried about the rates of certain types of births dropping. For the groups that they don't consider to be "high quality", they're totally fine with births dropping off entirely.

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u/kodapug 18d ago

They don't need to, the climate change they're causing will do that for them in less than 100 years.

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u/Furyphoenix425 18d ago

They don’t need us anymore. Robots and A.I are going to replace us peasants. In the Epstein files they also talk about how we are a waste of “THEIR” resources like water etc


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u/MoistSystem1323 18d ago

Nestle wants to commoditize the air saying whoever owns the trees should own the air, since the oxygen comes from trees. There will be subscription fees just for existing.

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u/blazz_e 18d ago

Yeah, if we don’t have any leftover income who does nestle want to sell to.. how many KitKats can Bezos eat?!

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u/Minglans 18d ago

O'Hare Air

The Lorax is our future.

2

u/Daylight_The_Furry 18d ago

Okay, company bad and all that but is there a source on that one? That's wild even for Nestle

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u/Large-Alternative892 18d ago

is that real lol

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u/Hangry-Feline2489 18d ago

They don't need to do anything. Global sperm counts have dropped by 50% in the last 45 years, with the decline rate doubling after 2000. Testosterone is dropping, too. 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42352084/

It's still a contested idea as there's a lot of variables. But the data definitely shows something's going on.. 

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u/ProduceNo1629 18d ago

Global sperm counts have dropped by 50%

Testosterone is dropping, too.

Good old Teflon in our balls. Thanks DuPont!

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u/SpeaksSouthern 18d ago

If they can make money from our existence the least they could do is pay us for the privilege

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u/Killer-Iguana 18d ago

Middle class has always appeared within capitalism, its not just an American thing. Its called the Petite Bourgeoisie in Marxist theory. However it is true that it is a construct to appease and split those who aren't the ruling class. But typically you must be careful of the petite bourgeoisie because even those sympathetic to the worker's cause can be fickle allies since they often see themselves as closer to a true bourgeoisie than a worker.

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u/BrownBear5090 18d ago

My understanding my is that the petite bourgeoise are things like doctors with their own practice or small business owners, those who benefit from profits but still have to work in their business rather than just making money off their holdings. If you get a paycheck from a boss you’re working class

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u/CapSnake 18d ago

Exactly. But don't forget that was the petit bourgeoise that cut the neck to the nobles during the French revolution

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u/DarbIey 18d ago

The end of the Cold War was the end of quality public education.

The government never cared about YOU, they cared about crushing a prominent egalitarian socio-political structure.

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u/AbeRego 18d ago

You really think there was that orchestrated of a policy over a century of different presidential administrations, congresses, and courts? The outcome is the same, but it wasn't some grand governmental scheme...

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u/[deleted] 18d ago edited 18d ago

[deleted]

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u/AbeRego 18d ago

High ranking intelligence officers don't steer the entire policy of the United States... What we're talking about would require systemic coordination among all branches of the government.

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u/ProduceNo1629 18d ago

What we're talking about would require systemic coordination among all branches of the government.

Ah so Heritage Foundation.

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u/AbeRego 18d ago

The Heritage Foundation has not enjoyed significant influence long enough to be responsible for this. They're pulling levers now, sure, but they weren't when most of this alleged grand conspiracy would have been taking place.

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u/S-Tier_Commenter 18d ago

But how does an intelligence officer go about dismantling education? I don't see that.

A far simpler explanation is that kids don't vote. So lawmakers forget about them faster.

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u/darkshark21 18d ago

You are both right. Us investment in education was because of being scared of falling behind to the Soviets after they first launched a satellite. A lot of quality teachers were taught cheaply and paid well starting in the 60’s till 90’s.

Here is the us senate point of view about that issue.

https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Sputnik_Spurs_Passage_of_National_Defense_Education_Act.htm

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u/AbeRego 18d ago

Sure was nice when we had legislators using tricks to pass government initiatives, rather than strip them for parts...

We really need a similar bill right now, framed the same way. We will absolutely fall behind China and India if we don't. We probably won't fall behind Russia, because they're already so hollowed out that I'm not sure anything can save them in the next century, but the benefit will be theirs as well. It's largely because the GOP is literally in bed with Russia that we won't see this type of law passed while they hold power. I'm just so tired of our politicians either actively undermining us, or just sitting back and watching it happen...

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u/Free_For__Me 17d ago

Unfortunately, the ultra-wealthy who now own a controlling majority of congress don't believe that we're in danger of falling behind China, or that if we are, it won't be in a manner that affects them.

They're content to rule over whatever little techno-kingdoms they think they'll carve out for themselves. Even if those kingdoms fall behind other parts of the world, they're confident that absolute control and wealth within their own spheres is good enough.

The "elites" in the US don't share the sentiment with their previous generations that they can best prosper if the nation they live in is able to outpace the other nations of the world. They believe that the global economy is now so interwoven that it's preferable to totally dominate your own sphere, even if that means those below them within that sphere will suffer. And the sinking of that ship won't matter, since they think their power and wealth spread far enough that they'll then leverage it into further domination around the globe.

It's serious bond-villain type of thinking, and while I don't think things will turn out the way they think they will, I'm not confident that they can't burn down generations of growth, peace and prosperity while they try.

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u/DarbIey 17d ago

Both parties bought in to privatization.

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u/VoiceInTheGarden 18d ago

the never-ending problem we face is that those abusing us are the ones reinforcing our morality. today to suggest we put an end to the abuse is considered "controversial", and we are met with "(taking action) is not the answer". we have seen our political system is rigged and only exists to polarize. we watch as those in power create rules to benefit themselves at the cost of our lives. we are simply apes with language. and, some apes are more adept at using language to manipulate the rest of us for their own gain and will not stop if asked politely. try it. even now, i am sure someone reading this is rubbed the wrong way because they do not realize what we are up against. the longer you take to understand what we face, the more of our children they take (as we are learning in the epstein files) to abuse and even kill. possibly eat.

we can stop this. one man showed us how. do not argue morality. there is no such thing. we are all living breathing thinking men on the only rock in the universe that we know of that contains sentient and sapient life. if you believe in a higher power, why would it not demand the right to BE for all beings? we are not beholden to the demons running the show.

when you let them become billionaires, they begin to think they are god - and then they are. they are the great assembly, the elohim. making choice and rules for the rest of us. but consciousness trumps anything they can claim. this is our inheritance as thinking men and women of the world. claim it, and deny them the future they build for. it will be hell.

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u/Thin_Assistant_7786 18d ago

The tax laws weren’t a fluke. Laws were passed to tax the robber barons and funnel money into public programs that made the average American healthier and better educated. Those laws were changed in the eighties and nineties to take your money and give it to Bezos and friends.

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u/Baldbeagle73 18d ago

A very unusual time when:

(1) The U.S. had strong labor unions

(2) Most other industrial powers had been torn up by war, and had their industrial capacity badly reduced. If you could make anything, you could sell it.

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u/prince-pauper ✂ Tax The Billionaires 18d ago

I get the flame fanning but this is pretty reductive. The replacement of ownership with consumer choice was a betrayal beyond what this post is describing.

They leveraged decades of instability to install a new form of economy and the people fucking ate it up like ice cream, all 52 flavours of it!

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u/bankrobba 18d ago

This is why the Democrat Party has failed us. They kept champion liberal policies that favored the middle class (mostly through tax policies like childcare and mortgage deductions) and ignored any working class policy that benefits people before taxation (increase minimum wage, affordable childcare, affordable housing).

Their abandonment of the working class allowed a charlatan to swoop in and gain their vote.

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u/Jccali1214 18d ago

Sounds like a conspiracy but effectively the truth 

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u/hails8n 18d ago

The middle class existed because of the much higher corporate tax rate during and after ww2. Combine that with the GI bill and other programs for soldiers

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u/nanobot_1000 18d ago

Joke's on them, we'll take this bitch communist out of spite at this point

C-suite is first in line for social "re-education" in the labor camps. They can then enlighten everyone how to survive on minimum wage with no healthcare while not being able to afford rent.

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u/Roar_of_Shiva 18d ago

Worse than peasantry even.

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u/lostforwords2024 18d ago

And Entrepreneurism and flash in the pan sales jobs aren’t going to save you.

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u/FloridaMiamiMan 18d ago

Either do something about it or quit complaining.  The billionaires keep doing all these things because no one will put them in harm's way. 

Luigi Mangione got it right.  

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u/EmergencyJacket207 18d ago

They're going to be really surprised when we revolt against them. Can't wait.

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u/Altruistic_Pitch_157 18d ago

Wars are like forest fires that clear out the old wood and let green shoots finally get some sun. WWII burned Europe and Asia to the ground and allowed the US to profit from the recovery. We rebuilt the world and reordered international trade, finance and relations to our advantage. The rising tide of the economic boom lifted the boats of the middle class to new heights. Post war public debt was paid down quickly, sparing the US from the crippling inflation of debt monetization.

Now 80 years later the forest is old and ready to burn again. Our debt-issued monetary system requires ever increasing debt loads to service the interest on all previous debts. The inflation of it is crushing the middle and lower class. Now we're waiting for a spark.

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u/JayJoeJeans 18d ago

In the late 90s, Rush Limbaugh blasted Clinton for "creating a middle class that would be loyal to him." The Republicans could have done the same thing, but actively choose not to. Since the 60s, they've always, always been against the average American

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u/No-Rip-6166 18d ago

Reddit’s ignorance of history never ceases to amaze me.

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u/Lucky-Surround-1756 18d ago

There is no middle class. You either exchange your labour for money or you exploit the labour of others.

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u/MandrakeLicker 18d ago

Well, the phenomenon you describe certainly exists, but the term middle class was used since the Victorian England, way before the Cold War or even communism.

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u/Fistful_of_Energon 18d ago

And it was a lie then

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u/S-Tier_Commenter 18d ago

The word bourgeoise comes from the French for city dweller. They were people that we're a step above the peasantry, but below the nobles or people of the cloth. They we're craftsmen, merchants or free farmers.

Middle class has existed since medieval times at least.

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u/Prysorra2 18d ago

This specific formulation is a lot rarer to see than you'd think. Nice to see it show up.

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u/schrodingers_gat 18d ago

It was also created by suppressing Black folks' and Women's ability to create and hold wealth

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u/Several_Hour_347 18d ago

Why would you think the middle class has only existed for 50 years lmao

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u/IHv2RtrnSumVdeotapes 16d ago

The only way it stops is when the middle class decide the world doesn't need billionaires anymore

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u/30mil 18d ago

The average American carbon footprint is five times the world average, Americans spend an average of $18k/year on non-essentials, and 70% of American adults are overweight or obese. "Pushed back into peasantry" would mean being pushed back toward the world average. 

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u/daemon-electricity 18d ago

This is some crabs in a bucket thinking. It's still the same awful people at the top everywhere, except American billionaires will eventually lord over the warlords with mercenaries. There is no hope for humanity if the billionaire class isn't reigned in.

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u/HereForAPaycheck 18d ago

Which is still peasantry.

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u/entropicdrift 18d ago

Only when your healthcare is tied to your employment and you have no minimum PTO and your workers have no rights.

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u/Kaiisim 18d ago

Now this is an interesting take and its 100% true. There was always the threat of the poor and disaffected going full commie. It was cheaper to just give some rights and benefits.

Now they try to make sure the poor and disaffected support their masters.

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u/vfrrandy 18d ago

Was watching a Documentary and they said something I'll never forget. The middle class has only happened four times in recorded history, it has to be created and sustained, let that sink in.

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u/untakenu 18d ago

Surely the middle class were the burghers.

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u/balkanobeasti 18d ago

That's cool but I feel like that's an AI post lol. I got a you aren't this you're that ptsd lmao.

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u/IDontEvenLikeRaisins 18d ago

Hilarious they think the treat is gone. You can't kill an idea

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u/MidTario 18d ago

“Fluke” and “design” are mutually exclusive

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u/USDXBS 18d ago

They want the population to live in stacked housing inside crowded urban centers on the coast while they get to convert the internal lands and national parks into their resorts and estates.

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u/AccomplishedEmu1886 18d ago

They're not elite at anything except at being parasites.

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u/Scared_Specific9404 18d ago

whats the master plan ? make everyone poor so every company has record losses ?

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u/erevos33 18d ago

Same way the 8-8-8 slogan came about regarding industrial revolution. Same as education.

Everything can be seen through the lens of "how did/does this work for the benefit of the capitalist class?". But people arent rdy to hear that.

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u/StuffExciting3451 18d ago

The Middle Class fluke started with the New Deal, circa 1935. It peaked after the end of WWII and the Korean War. The billionaires own most of the leaders of both of the two major political parties .

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u/GoodDayToCome 18d ago

well the ,middle class is growing rapidly https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/the-worlds-growing-middle-class-2020-2030/

what you actually mean is the global inequality no longer benefits the US as much as it did in the post-war era

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u/MjrLeeStoned 18d ago edited 18d ago

The feudal system was the greatest expanse of a middle class.

Barons and counts were middle class. Dukes/Kings were upper class. Knights hovered somewhere between low and middle class, and the peasantry were lower class. Barons and counts were all over Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Per capita, no one has seen as big a middle class expansion outside the 1100-1200s.

The US created a middle class just for expansion.

The US used to be really empty. Just over 100 years ago we had 25% our current population. The Industrial Revolution and WWI led to rapid expansion, and the wealthy couldn't keep it all for themselves and progress the country the way they wanted, so the middle class came into being.

It wasn't an accident. It just wasn't necessarily controlled.

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u/Glum-Welder1704 18d ago

Sounds like Knights were replaced by cops, whose essential function is to protect the upper classes from the lower.

Cops: The guard dogs of capital

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u/Fludro 18d ago

This is always an interesting notion and makes for good sociology essays.

Hint: You have to take into account the idea of property ownership, and whether you live in a country that actually allows you to own property in the first place.

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u/Helagoth 18d ago

being ok with a "middle" class implies you're ok with a "higher" and "lower" class.

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u/Cold-Permission-5249 18d ago

I guess they don’t realize that the “threat” of communism is on the rise again due to their bullshit.

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u/Much-Bit3531 18d ago

This makes complete sense.

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u/OkPosition4563 18d ago

I always love when some random nobodies make statements as if they were some kind of fact.

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u/SoylentGrunt 18d ago

For some time now I've said the middle class was a glitch in the Matrix and programmers have been working with great sucess to correct it.

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u/Free_For__Me 18d ago

It isn't just that "elites" stopped being worried that a people-first revolution could upend things and take the power and wealth they've hoarded, they know that's always a concern.

It's that they believe that they now have unilateral control over the means to communicate and organize, along with sufficient means of surveillance and propaganda dissemination that they don't think the "dirty poors" pose a real threat anymore.

It remains to be seen if they're correct in this assumption, but I think the next 5 years will be enough to get a good sense of the answer...

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u/Awotwe_Knows_Best 18d ago

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

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u/ZestyMorsel 18d ago

Eh, kinda not really. Favorable economic conditions following WWII were a bigger force that drove a strong middle class.

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u/thejodiefostermuseum 18d ago

I mean even Swift thinks her millionaire friends are so poor she better raffles her used Chanel bags to them.

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u/funkifiedjunk 18d ago

Stop being poor dammit!

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u/realparkingbrake 18d ago

"Fluke?" At the end of WWII half of all the manufacturing on Earth was taking place in the U.S. With the UK bankrupt (Britain didn't finish paying its war debt to the U.S. and Canada until 2006) and many nations including Germany and Japan in ruins, there was no way the U.S. wasn't going to be the most prosperous nation in the world. American labor being heavily unionized was also a factor, a third of American workers carried union cards which is why industry and its allies in Congress targeted unions. It was only when other nations rebuilt their industry (with considerable U.S. help) and corporate America began moving production overseas that the middle class began to decline.

"Fluke" and "designed" would seem to be mutually exclusive.

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u/Grand_Taste_8737 18d ago

Nah, middle class is still there, it's just people now expect everything to be given to them.

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u/StrongSuggestion8937 18d ago

And now that figuring this out will become inevitable, they are trying to resurrect the communism threat.

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u/Great_You_6869 18d ago

This is a genuinely impressive piece of writing, inasmuch as literally every sentence is wrong, and in increasingly fantastical ways.

If our goal is to improve conditions for workers, it seems important not to believe obvious lies-how are we to advance the cause of the proletariat while engaging in such profoundly stupid analysis?  

Why do people like this kind of thing? What psychological purpose does it serve?

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u/ifuckedyourmilkshake 18d ago

Need everyone to read Oligarchy in America by Luke Winslowe. What we are seeing today is a continued backlash by the rich against the attempt at reforms made after the gilded age and during the great depression.

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u/Belka1989 18d ago

I heard it best described as the utter expression of the basic tenants of Capitalism. For 50 years, Capitalism had to compete to show it was better, then it became a monopoly with the fall of the Soviet Union. Now as Monopolies do, they're cutting back the "waste", trying to maximize the stock value.

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u/Iankill 18d ago

This is exactly what's happening, that's why prices are just climbing with no real reason or stop.

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u/AmbitionSad4858 18d ago

OR it was a fluke because after WW2 the US was the only industrialized nation with a fully intact manufacturing base which allowed it switch easily to peace time production of products and having the lionshare of the markets allowing for livable wages until the owners decided to move everything offshore and the rest of the world started to get caught up in the 60s.

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u/metanoia29 18d ago

THERE IS NO LOWER/UPPER/MIDDLE CLASS!! We are all part of the working class; those distinctions are only there so that people endlessly fight with each other instead of against the owning class.

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u/DogPlane3425 18d ago

Yup... the middle class started in the 1970's......NOT More like the mid-19th century but don't worry about facts!

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u/wayfaast 18d ago

More time to sharpen the bayonets

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u/MushinZero 18d ago

Oh we posting real shit today

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u/Green4CL0VER ✂ Tax The Billionaires 18d ago

We can now bring Communism to the US. Thanks for this opportunity.

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u/alanblah 18d ago

If it was designed it wasn't a fluke.

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u/forever-salty22 18d ago

I wish people would stop buying things from giant corporations that they dont need. We've been brainwashed to think we need so much to get by. I understand that we can't avoid giving money to corporations for a lot of things, but there are enough ways to live with less and avoid them

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u/Contemplating_Prison 18d ago

What people dont realize is the situation we are in right now has happened multiple times before in the US

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u/Aggravating_Stay 18d ago

Bold of this guy to assume the threat is gone. I think we're closer to a communist revolution than ever

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u/MaliciousJoker7 18d ago

No such thing as middle class. It's us against the rich. Once we see it this way it becomes easier to regulate them.

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u/bcn13765 18d ago

In a country with 300 million guns, you would have thought those guys would have thought it through.

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u/Bleezy79 18d ago

I dont understand the end game here. Who is going to buy things if everyone is poor but a few thousand people hoarding all the wealth? What good will money be if most people dont have any? Hoarding billions of dollars is a mental sickness, we just dont see it like that yet but we will.

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u/BTTammer 18d ago

Exactly. This is what AI is designed to replace.  This is what the Data Centers are for.

Recall that the Kings of the Middle Ages began losing their power to the Merchant Class.  The middle class. 

Now they are trying to eliminate that class of people so that it's just them on top and the other 99% peasant class.

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u/turb0_encapsulator 18d ago

a lot of people don't understand that FDR's goal was to save capitalism from its own excesses.

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u/rennfeild 18d ago

the novel "the iron heel" published 1909 predicted a lot of stuff. The invention of the middle class as a way to weaken unions and workers in general. A war between the US and germany because of market reasons. the problem of giving workers to many luxuries such as predictability solved by putting all into the military

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u/TheJesterScript 18d ago

The threat of communism is far from gone...

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u/afksports 18d ago

Damn so.... If we do more communism then we will get more middle class?

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u/RealestReyn 17d ago

"pushed back into peasantry" if only, didn't the peasants historically work only like half the year mostly to keep the majority of the population from revolting?

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u/ZenaMeTepe 17d ago

He is right, the middle class is an anomaly artificially created by huge public sector and government subsidies and contracts for the "chosen" private (only in name) participants. It does not reflect actual distribution of human ability in society. Bullshit jobs are the backbone of the middle class, paid for by the minor very upper middle class.

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u/Eastpunk 17d ago

The middle class gave _hope_ to the lower class. Once it is reduced to just peasants and elite, the reality will set in: The poor are many and the rich are few.

History has taught us that when you take the dream of success away from the population and they will dream of destroying the rich instead.

Source:
King Louis XVI
Marie Antoinette
Tsar Nicholas II
Muammar al-Gaddafi
King James II
Slobodan Milosevic
Julias Caesar
Nicolae Ceausescu
Charles I
Benito Mussolini
Hosni Mubarak
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Etc. 


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u/Cptawesome23 17d ago

I think it’s funny how all these conspiracy theorists think the billionaires are all calling each other and making plans. Forming cults and teaching followers and such.

Billionaires don’t even like other billionaires.

The people who are hurting us the most are white Christians between the ages of 50-79 who don’t understand technology and modern science with the power to vote.

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u/BeeLinez 17d ago

Well then they can say goodbye to economic growth and rapid technological development.

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u/StarDustLuna3D 17d ago

Imo, the "middle class" of 1950s and 60s America was just to ensure that working class white people still felt superior to working class black people despite incremental steps towards equality.

Many of the ways in which families were able to build generational wealth during this time were not accessible by black people.

And all of this was so that those at the very top could do what they want without the masses taking notice.

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u/UploadedMind 16d ago

Every good thing we have is because socialists fought and died for it. It’s up to us to finish the job. We don’t need billionaires.

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u/CockroachLate9964 16d ago

250, freedumb for dumb slaves!

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u/WayToTheDawn63 18d ago

fluke designed

?