Class Warfare

Republicans and conservatives always fight back against proposals to raise taxes on corporations and rich individuals by making two basic claims. First, such proposals amount to un-American "class warfare", pitting the working class against corporations and the rich. Second, such proposals would take money for the government that would otherwise have been invested in production and thus created jobs.

Neither logic nor evidence supports either claim. The charge of class war is particularly obtuse. Consider simply these two facts. First, at the end of the second world war, for every dollar Washington raised in taxes on individuals, it raised $1.50 in taxes on business profits. Today, that ratio is very different: for every dollar Washington gets in taxes on individuals, it takes 25 cents in taxes on business. In short, the last half century has seen a massive shift of the burden of federal taxation off business and onto individuals.

Second, across those 50 years, the actual shift that occurred was the opposite of the much more modest reversal proposed this week by President Obama; over the same period, the federal income tax rate on the richest individuals fell from 91% to the current 35%. Yet, Republicans and conservatives use the term "class war" for what Obama proposes – and never for what the last five decades have accomplished in shifting the tax burden from the rich and corporations to the working class.

The tax structure imposed by Washington on the US over the last half-century has seen a massive double shift of the burden of taxation: from corporations to individuals and from the richest individuals to everyone else.
~ from The Truth About 'Class War' in America by Richard Wolff ~

Let's be clear about something: In a representative democracy, most legislation is a form of class warfare. When legislation serves to protect or enhance the interests of the general public, it tends to do so at the expense of corporations and wealthy individuals. When legislation serves to protect the interests of corporations and other oligarchs, it generally does so at the expense of the health, safety and well-being of the general public.

Needless to say, we usually don't like to talk about it in such crass terms. It goes on almost everyday, but the only time you hear it referenced is when legislation seeks to reign in corporate excess. It is only then that the class warfare tag is affixed and it's always done so in a negative light.