Naomi Klein: Disowned by the Ownership Society

[LongTomH]

It seems Bush's Ownership Society is falling apart like the rest of his 'legacy'.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080218/klein

Well before the ownership society had a neat label, its creation was central to the success of the right-wing economic revolution around the world. The idea was simple: if working-class people owned a small piece of the market--a home mortgage, a stock portfolio, a private pension--they would cease to identify as workers and start to see themselves as owners, with the same interests as their bosses. That meant they could vote for politicians promising to improve stock performance rather than job conditions. Class consciousness would be a relic.

<snip>

Today, the basic promises of the ownership society have been broken. First the dot-com bubble burst; then employees watched their stock-heavy pensions melt away with Enron and WorldCom. Now we have the subprime mortgage crisis, with more than 2 million homeowners facing foreclosure on their homes. Many are raiding their 401(k)s--their piece of the stock market--to pay their mortgage. Wall Street, meanwhile, has fallen out of love with Main Street. To avoid regulatory scrutiny, the new trend is away from publicly traded stocks and toward private equity. In November Nasdaq joined forces with several private banks, including Goldman Sachs, to form Portal Alliance, a private equity stock market open only to investors with assets upward of $100 million. In short order yesterday's ownership society has morphed into today's members-only society.

Here's where the real issue lies:

The mass eviction from the ownership society has profound political implications. According to a September Pew Research poll, 48 percent of Americans say they live in a society carved into haves and have-nots--nearly twice the number of 1988. Only 45 percent see themselves as part of the haves. In other words, we are seeing a return of the very class consciousness that the ownership society was supposed to erase. The free-market ideologues have lost an extremely potent psychological tool--and progressives have gained one. Now that John Edwards is out of the presidential race, the question is, will anyone dare to use it?

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080218/klein

This is another reason I really wish John had stayed in the race. As more and more people lose their grip on that increasingly-mythical 'middle class' status, John's message would have had more power. If only the primaries were a couple of months later!

[Demeter]

1. There's Still a Probability That The Train Will Derail

It's very small, but it could grow enormously quickly. Maybe I'm praying for a miracle here, but it ain't over till the fat lady sings.

[izquierdista]

2. 45 percent, my ass

I bet I have more assets than 90% of those 45%, and I am SURE not one of the haves.

[Fovea]

4. They are what I refer to as

The Future Lotto Winners of Murika.

And someday, somehow, they are gonna strike it RICH!!!

And when that day comes, they don't wanna be one of the suckahs paying taxes.

Until that day...

t077ally PWND.

[angrycarpenter]

3. Maybe he meant ownership in the new sense of the word

To be owned is to be totally defeated, dominated, and ridiculed by someone. Sounds about right.

[Yuugal]

5. Thats how I see it nt

[LaurenG]

6. I was just putting together a rant along these lines

There is no way I could have said it so well.

I am being forced fed the candidate that corporate America backs; as usual. Nothing ever really changes and it never will until we as a united body say ENOUGH. I don't need to be brought any lower to realize what is happening.

[rosetta627]

7. God Naomi Klein is friggin brilliant

She may be the best journalist we have in terms of painting the big (word) picture.
She totally gets it.

[meow2u3]

8. We don't have a free market--nor an "ownership" society

What we have is a cancer known as corporate rule.