I think a modification of Max's thought might be that the masses of White people are not as concerned about inequality today as in other periods. Inequality had more salience for Whites two decades ago, but it is still quite salient for people of color ( who are people in the U.S. , too , you know). It seems to me many women must be concerned about the gender gap in income inequality.
Racism is not super-structure. It is in income gaps and life expectancy gaps and morbidity gaps, last hired, first fired, police harassment and brutality gaps, educational opportunity gaps. Racism is being , not just consciousness. Furthermore, racist inequality is part of the normal functioning of capitalism. In fact, it is as much fundamental of the capitalist mode of production as wage-labor.
On Reagan and Bush, the reason inequality is greater today than during their terms in office is that it took a while for the Reaganite New Racism and assault on the whole working class to take effect. Today's greater equality is exactly what one would predict after years of Reaganite policies. It took a while for the Reaganism to trickle down to the state and local levels. For example, in Michigan , the social fascist Engler, is just about to finish off the job he started in 1990. In New York , Guiliani was recently elected. Clinton, the Reaganite Democrat, only recently abolished welfare.
Anyway, racist and male supremacist inequality are another thing hoodwinked by the GDP indicator, Chang.
Charles Brown
>>> Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> 09/07/99 12:12AM >>>
Max Sawicky wrote:
>Since I raised it,
>I'll reveal my own unproven hypothesis: people in the
>U.S. don't give a damn about inequality.
Oh yes. My impression is that inequality had more salience as a political issue when liberals could blame it on Reagan and Bush, and not the normal operations of American capitalism. Inequality is worse now than in the 1980s, but you hear a lot less about it now. You could say similar things about civil liberties (wiretaps have boomed in the Clinton years, and the Prison Litigation Reform Act is one of the worst? the worst? incursions on habeas corpus since the Civil War) and the environment (Jeff St Clair could fill us in on the details). But on both, the liberals are largely silent.
Doug