Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, July 08, 2011

The riddle of the middle

It's like a bad riddle: almost everyone thinks they belong to it, but few can define what it is.

Politicians claim to champion it, but it's increasingly difficult to determine what it actually wants.

And, often, when we talk about it, we're really only referring to part of it -- the part that doesn't really belong to it at all, but likes to think it does.

What is it?

It's the middle class.

The CCPA Growing Gap Project did extensive public opinion research to look at issues around income inequality and poverty-how it's experienced and how it's perceived. But something else was revealed: as my colleague explained to me, it doesn't matter if you make $25,000 or $150,000; everyone self-identifies as "middle class."

Now, obviously the vast majority of Canadians understand there's a world of difference between life as experienced by someone living right around the poverty line and someone among the richest 5% of income earners. So how can both extremes (representing that massive swath of humanity not in a position to light cigars with $100 bills -- at least not every day -- but not living on the street either) possibly see themselves as part of the same class?

Is "middle class" simply a label that speaks to how people want to think of themselves and be perceived?

Perhaps its real significance is as a term that de-stigmatizes both ends of the spectrum. It allows the well off to feel less pretentious (less "elite," to use a term co-opted by neoconservatives to describe postal workers) and the working poor feel less financially insecure.

We talk about the "disappearing middle class," but while disposable income is flatlining and decent jobs are vanishing, the middle class label isn't. On the contrary, it's being stretched like an elastic band to accommodate an enormous range of people with very different lives and financial realities.

People who make less can aspire to the notional lifestyle middle class evokes, and people who make more can take comfort in a label that allows them to have more, yet still be considered ordinary, down-to-earth folks.

But I think constant use and acceptance of this term allows us to avoid addressing the persistent financial struggle experienced by too many, the accumulation of wealth by too few, and the difference in between.

I think the over-use of "middle classism" provides us all with a convenient way to avoid the fact that far too many people constantly face the heartbreaking struggle of paying the rent or feeding the kids, while others bring in six figures and can top up their RRSPs each year quite comfortably.

I think it relies on the illusion of economic commonality -- even, dare I say it, a solidarity -- that is a useful pretense come election time when parties of all stripes champion the "middle class."

The distribution of wealth has shifted, but the self-identification as middle class has not; if anything, identification of and with the middle class has expanded to include more people than ever. And rather than political leaders addressing the vast disparities across the economic spectrum, we hear how their policies will benefit the "middle class" when even a cursory analysis reveals the real beneficiaries of many of these policies are those with much higher incomes (the very upper crust of the middle, so to speak).

Full Article
Source: Rabble.ca 

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