General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: social/economic justice [View all]AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)...lays the groundwork for civil rights IMHO because it takes power away from the oligarchy. Of course we have to fight for both, but until we the people get back economic power, the oligarchists will keep pushing us backwards socially. It's a big tug-o-war that they are slowly winning.
Blacks definitely got the short end of the stick when we had a fairer distribution of money from the 1950s - 1980, but they gained in civil rights because the (economic) power wasn't in the hands of the oligarchy. The oligarchists had no power to stop it.
What we are seeing now with trade deals is manufacturing jobs going overseas. This disproportionately hits inner city minority residents because most of these factory jobs are/were in big cities. The inner city poor are taking the brunt of it economically, as always, losing their factory jobs. Now they are going after social benefits like welfare and food stamps, making the poor ever poorer. They are psychopaths.
It's one huge flaming ball of clusterfuck, and I believe something really bad is going to/must happen before the pendulum swings the other way.
I think we agree in principle, but I don't think we will make many civil rights gains with the oligarchy gaining more and more power over us. At some point we will just have to wrest it back, and it ain't gonna be pretty.