For nearly the last two years, the USA has been led by Barack Obama who clearly thinks of the country in terms of social classes. In his view, it is the rich versus the poor or one race versus another. Obama wants to spread the wealth around, to take from the rich and provide for the poor. It is a matter of basic fairness to him. It is also the product of years of "progressive" thought that buys into the basic Marxist view of the world. Obama has moved down the road towards victory for his favored class, first by spending billions and trillions on all sorts of programs whose announced beneficiaries are the poor and also by pushing for a tax increase on all those "rich" folks who have money to burn.
The question that needs to be answered at this point is this: in a class war like Obama's, who are the winners and who are the losers? Particularly since the upcoming election will give voters the chance to end Obama's class war by voting for the GOP, this question is particularly important at this time.
First let's look at the losers: the biggest loser is unquestionably the US economy. The main engine of growth in any economy is investment. Obama's higher taxes take capital away from those who have enough that they can invest and transfers that capital to the government which does not invest. This cuts economic growth. To the extent that the government manages to send some of the cash to those who are less well off, this does not increase investment since those folks consume what they are given rather than investing. The continuing onslaught by the government against the wealthy also creates a climate of uncertainty which again is the enemy of investment. Finally, the higher taxes shape investments away from those which are the most economically efficient and towards those that keep the biggest return after taxes. In other words, investments like municipal bonds that are tax shelters gain a bigger share of the smaller investment pie than normal. This too reduces the capital available for investment in normal economic activity and hinders the growth of the economy.
The second big loser from class warfare are the unemployed. True, these folks collect their unemployment compensation, and this gives them the means for a subsistence existence, but the chance for finding a new job is greatly reduced as a result of the slower economic growth.
The third big loser from class warfare are the families of the poor. Some of them will get government help that may alleviate some of the suffering, but with a slower economy they weill be deprived of the chance to exit the impoverished class through employment opportunities that will have dried up.
The big winner of class warfare is the government. Once the tax and spend system is underway, more government workers are needed. These additional workers are not even close to enough to take up the slack of those who lose their jobs in the private sector, but they are enough to put a major burden on the resources of the government. The government also gets to decide who will be the winners and losers in the economy. So, in addition to getting all those taxes, the government can determine which industries will get investment and which will be starved smaller. This "victory" is actually another blow to economic growth since it prevents the efficient distribution of the smaller supply of investment capital that remains in the economy. A good example of this is the Chevrolet Volt. The Volt is the all electric car that GM will soon be selling at the behest of the Obama administration which controls the company. Each car can go 40 miles between the need to be recharged, so it is strictly for local use. Each car will cost over $40,000. My guess is that these cars will not sell. who wants to pay $40,000 for a car that cannot be used even to go on many local trips. I live 30 miles from New York City and could not use the car to go into the city and back. Only a few showy Hollywood types will buy this loser, but the Obamacrats wanted a "green" car and so GM spent hundreds of millions of dollars building it rather than a car that could actually sell well.
Another winner of class warfare are those of the poor who get funds from the government, but this win is minor at best. It does not create the chance to advance up the ladder. It only provides sustenance so long as the government continues to pay. It is a low level and dead end victory.
With all these winners and loser, I did not mention the rich. The truth is that for the rich, Obama's class warfare is not a big thing. Sure, they pay more in taxes and change their investment profiles. But absent a more Marxist confiscation of wealth and nationalization of the means of production, life for the rich will go on without much difference. The rich need to be on guard against a further movement towards total Marxism by Obama, but absent that, the warfare will not mean much.
Strangely, the big losers in Obama's class warfare are the very people for whom Obama claims to be fighting together with the USA as a whole. The truth is that class warfare is a Marxist construct that simply does not work. It sounds good when not examined carefully. A proper investigation reveals, however, that it is a threadbare remnant of 19th century thought that has done incalculable damage to billions around the world.
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