So today, as part of a lecture series that happens at my high school, Barbara Ehrenreich, journalist, liberal activist, and most recently, author of Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America, came and spoke. How it works is that during the day, the speaker speaks to thirty or so high school students who have signed up and at night, speaks to the auditorium, filled with anyone who wants to come (and got tickets in adavance)
(her talk, below)
The discussion with the students, which was mostly a question and answer session (some speakers give speeches), focused primarily on the economy and the corporate culture in America. I agreed with most of what she said, but also, throughout her talk, I noticed a trend that I did not like. She constantly made unequivocal statements attacking the middle and upper class. But here is a basic outline of her answers.
She called for a maximum wage, to go along with a 14-dollar minimum wage. This I agree with in principal.
She stated, to one of my questions, that outsourcing could be solved by pouring money into foreign countries. For example, she said, money that is used to protect our borders with Mexico should instead go to the Mexican government to help improve the standard of living there.
I was sitting next to a friend who has just joined the army reserves and will probably ship out to Iraq after he graduates in May. She pissed him off by telling us (correctly, I believe) that we now have an "army of the working poor" and infuriated him more by saying that the army only promotes one thing, killing others. She cited Tim McVeigh, the DC Sniper, who were simply putting their military training to use.
The main problem I had in all this was her condescending tone when it came to the middle and upper class. Living in a second-homeowner area (New Yorkers love my area), we have a large population of the upper middle class and the upper class. She commented on this frequently, on how we did not know how good we had it, etc, and I felt myself being turned off by this. It seemed to me that she wants to help the working class so much that it has created a hatred for the upper class and this disdain was even passed on to a group of students who she perceived (incorrectly) as in this class group.
Overall, I came away with a mixed impression. I liked her plans for the working poor of this country, but I felt conflicted as a liberal. I do not hate wealthy people for having more than I do. I do, when I have the chance, encourage those who have the means to donate or give charity, but I do not feel an immense rage when they do not. It is dangerous, I believe, that liberals like Mrs. Ehrenreich come across as holding a grudge against the upper class.
So I guess I would like to discuss the relationship between our side and the wealthy elite. Republicans love to cry about class warfare, but listening to Mrs. Ehrenreich certainly seemed like an attack on a certain class.
Update [2004-11-30 18:27:49 by israelfox87]: The military question came up when asked whether the military was a viable option for a lower income person looking for a steady job, help with paying for higher education, etc. She stated that she believed it was not, that the military does not do enough in this regard etc.