Why class matters in America
By any definition, I have lived the American dream. My paternal grandparents grew up in mountain villages outside Trabzon in Turkey without indoor plumbing. My maternal grandfather was a Swedish orphan and his wife, my grandmother, was the ninth child of a Lancashire coal miner.
And yet, because my mother grew up in the US and my father immigrated there at a time when the American dream was still alive and well, I now have the good fortune to work with, and write for, some of the best-educated and most privileged people on earth.
The American dream has been the driving belief system of my country. If we Americans think we can do better than our parents, we are willing to put up with almost anything — grotesque wealth inequality, a non-existent social safety net and even the increasing awareness that our country is turning into a banana republic with a power-mad would-be autocrat at the helm. No wonder corruption has become a key issue in the upcoming midterm elections.
But I think class is an even bigger one. It is the backdrop for everything from the Republicans’ economic nationalism to the Democrats’ focus on the cost of living crisis and concentrated corporate power, and for specific state initiatives like the California billionaire tax that will be voted on in early November.
The idea of getting the country’s richest 100 people to pay for healthcare for the poorest isn’t just a batty idea supported by millennial socialists. Last week, Scott Kirby, the chief executive of United Airlines, declared wealth inequality a “danger to society” and called for a national wealth and inheritance tax as high as 100 per cent in some cases.
Kirby is now being pilloried by conservatives. But they should be careful. Siding with billionaires may not work well politically given that the latest Pew figures show that over 60 per cent of Americans now consider themselves working class, up six points from two years ago.
Appealing to working people has brought the Republicans electoral success in recent years. Donald Trump’s inflationary wars (both trade and hot) have undermined that appeal to some extent. Democrats are finding that economic populism is more salient than identity politics. And so, both parties are now locked in an internal, existential struggle between leadership, key donors (who want neither tariffs nor tax rises), and political reality, as they try to play the class card.
Doing so successfully requires a proper understanding of how class works in America, a topic both nebulous yet all encompassing.
