Thirty-four years ago this month the young James Fallows published (in the Washington Monthly) what still remains a definitive article about the class divide in times of war—“What Did You Do in the Class War, Daddy?” I still have a yellowed original copy somewhere. Fallows was writing about the sickening reality that as a Harvard student he, like so many other Ivy Leaguers, could quite easily avoid fighting in Vietnam. They had the ways and means to avoid military service: exemptions, deferments, lawyers, connections.
Here’s a truism: The wealthiest 1 percent have never had it so good.
According to government figures,
1-percenters’ share of America’s total income is the highest it’s been
since 1929, and their tax rates are the lowest they’ve faced in two
decades. Through bonuses, many 1-percenters will profit from the $23
trillion in bailout largesse the Treasury Department now says could be
headed to financial firms. And, most of them benefit from IRS decisions
to reduce millionaire audits and collect zero taxes from the majority
of major corporations.
David Brooks was upset. You can tell when this conservative and
rather-professorial columnist for The New York Times gets upset,
because his words almost sag with disappointment - you can practically
hear the tsk-tsks and the heavy sighs in each paragraph. When most
commentators on the right see things that offend them, they get
snarling mad; Brooks gets sad.
My goodness, how they howl when the proverbial shoe is on the proverbial other foot. You'd think the Red Army had just left Moscow and was preparing a frontal assault on the Federal Reserve.
So what are conservatives, Wall Street and financial television commentators shouting? Socialists! That's right. Spread the word: Socialists are swarming over our nation's Capitol and making off with the means of production, otherwise known as campaign contributions and the federal budget. You got trouble, my friends.
