Mike Whitney — Patrick Caddell; The Pollster Who ‘Got it Right’

While I admire Caddell’s insights about the emerging class war across America, I’m not sure that he’s right when he says “the old rules of politics are collapsing”. The rules aren’t collapsing. What’s happening is that more people are simply aware of what’s going on and who their real enemies are, the bigshots in the deep-state establishment who have no political affiliation and who control just about everything. This new awareness or class consciousness is an essential part of understanding how the world works and who is screwing who, but it’s importance shouldn’t be exaggerated.

Counterpunch

Patrick Caddell; The Pollster Who ‘Got it Right’

Mike Whitney

Jon Schwarz — 239 Years Ago, Adam Smith Predicted Fury of Seattle Business at CEO Who Pays Workers Well

Powerful post with lots of keeper Adam Smith quotes.

The Intercept
239 Years Ago, Adam Smith Predicted Fury of Seattle Business at CEO Who Pays Workers Well
Jon Schwarz

Peter Radford — Business schools and inequality [HBS smackdown]

Peter Radford smacks down his alma mater, Harvard Business School, as perverted. Harsh. Managerial capitalism at its worst. The good new is that now the public is waking up to the fact that the managerial class is engaged in class warfare against them.

Real-World Economics Review Blog
Business schools and inequality
Peter Radford

See also:

Truthout | Opinion
Debating Capitalism - Redefining Outdated Terms
Richard D Wolff | Professor ofEconomics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Chris Dillow — On Within-Class Envy

Of course, there are countless real world analogies to this behaviour. Old money sneering at new money, the richcomplaining about the super-rich, "white trash" being racist and "strivers" attacking "shirkers" are all examples of within-class conflict. What's striking about this experiment is that such behaviour emerges so easily, without the aid of ideology or media manipulation.This suggests that the lack of development of class solidarity has some deeper-rooted causes than ideology alone.

For a Marxist, this is depressing stuff. But it should also concern any liberal or democrat.It suggests that people might support policies that hurt other poor people - for example, welfare cuts or immigration controls - even if they themselves are harmed by such policies. In this sense, people's preferences aren't necessarily the same as their narrow material interests.

Stumbling and Mumbling
On Within-Class Envy
Chris Dillow | Investors Chronicle (UK)

The basis of interest politics and wedge issues?

David Moberg — ‘Going Nuclear’ on Class

The Democrats’ working-class disconnect.
In These Times
‘Going Nuclear’ on Class
David Moberg | Senior Editor

Michael McAuliff — Jon Kyl Berates Obama For Focus On Middle Class

President Barack Obama should stop talking about the middle class because it turns people against rich Americans, who should be embraced as the Michael Jordans of the U.S. economy, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz,) said Monday. 

Declaring that the use of the phrase "middle class" is "misguided and wrong and even dangerous," Kyl argued in a Senate floor speech that Obama is "spreading economic resentment [that] weakens American values" and ignoring "the uniquely meritocratic basis of our society."

“We have a president who talks incessantly about class, particularly the middle class,” Kyl said.

"I just think the whole discussion of class is wrong. it's not what we do here in America," said Kyl, the Senate minority whip. He added, "I don't think there's anything called 'middle class values' that are different from the values of other people in this country. Tell me what's different about the values of someone who the president identifies as middle class?"

Read it at The Huffington Post
Jon Kyl Berates Obama For Focus On Middle Class
by Michael McAuliff

ROFL