Rakesh, The point you are making re difficulty in sustaining a sizable 'middle class' as the crisis deepens is precisely why the US has to see off any challenge to its hegemony. It is the growing crisis which is responsible for inter-imperialist rivalries. In fact my argument in the articles is that the privileged working class which British capitalism will be able to sustain will necessarily get smaller as the crisis confronts growing sections of the privileged working class and 'middle class' with 'proletarianisation'. Their political influence is what is decisive. David At 10:40 13/02/02 -0800, you wrote: >re 6572 > > >> US needs to see off any challenge to its hegemony if it is to sustain a >> sizeable 'middle class' in the US. > >David, >I don't see how US capital is interested in sustaining, rather than >expropriating, its own sizeable middle class. As the Enron case makes >clear, small investors were cowed by corporate insiders who were able to >siphon off money raised in the capital markets and cash out at the expense >of this multitude of small investors. Now as market caps are slowly >brought to earth--and I suspect there will be more weakness as Greenspan >no longer eases--only those few who are cash rich will pick up the >cheapened assets. As always, recessions are exited with a more >centralized capital. The American middle class is even being further cut >down to size. And not as a result of the loss of US world hegemony. >I don't have the real numbers with me but remarkable data on American >wealth concentration have been prepared by Edward Wolff. >Rakesh >
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Mar 02 2002 - 00:00:04 EST