I have always been tremendously amused by the conservative argument that proponents of democratic action to check the inequality that almost always accompanies a market economy are selling ?envy? and ?class warfare.? This is particularly true when such arguments are cloaked in the guise of sober, religious admonitions about not coveting what belongs to one?s neighbor.
The last time I checked, ?envy? and it?s close sibling, the pursuit of wealth (for the purpose of acquiring greater physical and material comfort — and power) than one?s neighbor was the central idea of capitalism. To quote Gordon Gekko, ?greed is good.?
Is it the unhealthy application of ?envy? or ?class warfare? when landless peasants in impoverished Third World countries demand changes to the ?free market? that provide for fair distribution of land and resources so that the hereditary oligarchs that rule their countries are forced to play on something akin to a level playing field? To me the answer is an obvious ?no.?
A similar truth holds in the present American debate. It?s not Kerry or Edwards or the millions of Americans left behind by our modern economy who are using ?envy? or practicing class warfare. If anyone?s doing this, it?s the members of the ruling corporate elite that have made the growth and preservation of their own astounding fortunes the chief priority of the modern economy.
A wonderful explication of the dramatic and unhealthy growth in inequality in modern America can be found in a speech delivered last month by veteran journalist Bill Moyers at the ?Inequality Matters Forum.?
According to Moyers, ?class warfare? was launched a generation ago by the nation?s financial and business class: ?The middle class and working poor are told that what?s happening to them is the consequence of Adam Smith?s ?Invisible Hand?. This is a lie. What?s happening to them is the direct consequence of corporate activism, intellectual
propaganda, the rise of a religious orthodoxy that in its hunger for government subsidies has made an idol of power, and a string of political decisions favoring the powerful and the privileged who bought the political system right out from under us.?
