Quote:
Originally Posted by AltaGuy
In the US, decades of efforts to enrich the rich at the expense of the middle class has massively increased inequality. As ever, inequality leads to populism, tribalism, protectionism, and extremism. Inequality is breeding similar things in Canada and elsewhere in the world too. The ability of a government to effectively redistribute money and tax the rich has reduced dramatically because of both globalization and flighted capital, and overt policies favouring the wealthy.
I remain of the opinion that there is no true dialectic in the US between extreme right and left. The extreme right is enabled, abetted, funded, and championed by many wealthy interests: a perverted betrayal of many poor citizens’ best interests, but a thrust that continues to exacerbate inequality and social ills.
However, the extreme left has no powerful or moneyed backers. On social policy - yes - there are some wealthy interests. But the Democrats and “left” or “centrist” interests in the US are backed by pretty conservative forces as well. The biggest donors to the Democrats - the ones that pay for political campaigns, get policies changed, and sway public opinion on a large scale - are decidedly centrist. Of course they are: wealth distribution rarely finds common ground with the wealthy. Is CNBC - the “left” news station - really extreme? A company owned by juggernaut Comcast? But Fox News sure is.
So yeah - social issues get some play - and make it seem as if the discourse is a dialectic. It’s not: the extreme right is backed by money, while the extreme left is part of a party that is firmly centrist and will never go far left because it would hurt its own moneyed interests too much.
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In the USA universities are big business. Their combined voting power (including faculty and staff) is huge. They definitely lean towards the far left. I'd argue they are just as big of a voting/lobby group as any other major industry.
I mostly agree with what you're saying, although a major part of the problem is also generational. The baby boomers control huge amounts of wealth, and the younger generations have very little access to it. The problem is worldwide. It's destroying economic mobility. As the cost of owning a home or starting a business becomes out of reach for anyone but those born into rich families, people end up firmly entrenched into the social class they were born into. This creates discord and leads to extremism on both sides.
Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule, but there's no doubt it's much harder to start a business or own a home than it was 20-30 years ago. Traditional avenues, like education, do little to alter this, as many university students end up with a useless degree and a large debt load.