Over the years I have heard my share of complaints about the rhetoric that leftists use in newspapers and flyers. When Workers World produced podcasts from its recent public forum titled “Karl Marx was right: capitalism is rotten and doomed” it did occur to me that some people would think it sounded over the top. Not that I think it’s an untrue statement, but I know that some people bristle when leftists actually use words like “capitalism” or refer to Karl Marx being right about just about anything.
But I feel much better today because I saw some headlines in the mainstream media that were far more jarring than anything I’ve seen in the socialist press.
I count this as the most offensive headline of 2008:
“Nation’s Rich Fielding Brunt of Crisis”
Think about it. In the last year, tens of thousands of working people have lost their homes in foreclosures. In the last two months dozens of major employers have announced plans to lay off hundreds and even thousands of employees. Cities and towns around the country are discussing ways of cutting their budgets, including cutbacks on human services, education, public assistance, and basic infrastructural improvements . . . with many of these cutbacks accompanied by layoffs. And many of us know friends or family members who have recently retired or who are about to retire who have seen the value of 401(k) plans evaporate because of the stock market crash and are now trying to figure out how they will survive their “golden years.”
But because a group comprising less than 1% of the entire population owned one-half of all stocks and so, the theory goes, experienced the biggest loss, that means that they are “bearing the brunt” of the economic crisis.
Well, I suppose what it really boils down to is this, as old fashioned as it may sound: if you define who you are by what you own, then yes, the filthy rich have been devastated by the stock market crash and the global economic crisis. By any other measure, a couple who are explaining to their kids why they have to move in with relatives and change schools because the bank wanted their house back are bearing much more than their share.
Filed under: Economic crisis
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