If Western countries want to disprove the dire forecasts of Karl Marx, we must think creatively about how to make the middle class more prosperous and secure
...in 1982, only seven U.K. financial executives were receiving six-figure salaries. Today, tens of thousands are (an enormous increase, even allowing for inflation).
The situation is very different for the middle-ranking civil servant, attorney, doctor, teacher or small-business owner.
Many middle-class families now depend absolutely on the income of both parents in a way that was unusual even as late as the 1980s.
In Britain and the U.S., we are learning all over again that it is not the natural condition of the human race for children to be better off than their parents.
Such a regression, in societies that assume constant progress, is striking.
Imagine the panic if the same thing happened to life expectancy.
When things go backward in nations accustomed to middle-class stability, people start to ask questions.
What is the use of capitalism if its rewards go to the few and its risks are dumped on the many?
The rights of property do not seem so enticing if the value of what you own collapses or if that property is trapped by debt.
What is so great about globalization if ...
...it means that the products and services you offer are undercut by foreign competition and that millions of new people can come to your country, take your jobs and enjoy your welfare benefits?
...Marx did have an insight about the disproportionate power of the ownership of capital.
The owner of capital decides where money goes, whereas the people who sell only their labor lack that power.
This makes it hard for society to be shaped in their interests.
In recent years, that disproportion has reached destructive levels, so if we don’t want to be a Marxist society, we need to put it right.
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Link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-middle-class-squeeze-1443194736
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