3 ms·

If there isn't already an intricate system of landed class and privilege, who are "these folks over here" that give the money for the welfare and benefits?

• rsync 11y ago
  The answer is "all of us", or at least in the very level and equal society that existed post-WW2. As outcomes become less equal, a smaller and smaller proportion of individuals foot that bill. We should expect that as that intensifies, some of those folks are going to look around and start asking where their hereditary and class privileges are.
  • maus42 11y ago
    Let me introduce to Swedish progressive income taxation and VAT percent. Folkshemmet certainly isn't paid by landed gentry.
  • gpcz 11y ago
    Post-WW2 America had less income inequality than now, but it was far from a "very level and equal society." In 1945, the share of the total income of the richest 1% was 11.07%, while in 2014 it was 17.85%. For the richest 10%, 32.64% in 1945 and 47.19% in 2014. A big chunk of the US segregated K12 schools and disenfranchised a race of people that politicians now use as a caricature in order to de-fund welfare programs. Women were kicked out of paying jobs after substantially contributing to the war effort because men came back and expected women to be homemakers. The belief that post-WW2 America was some kind of glorious classless meritocracy is a myth. It just took a few decades of the natural self-reinforcing loops of capital to highlight the inequality that was already there.