[lbo-talk] "The Trouble With Class Interest Populism, " by Stephen Rose

[Doug Henwood]

On Nov 12, 2006, at 4:03 PM, Michael Pugliese wrote:

>  Same Stephen Rose?
> http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww? 
> section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=12002
>   >...One strand of this argument contends that, despite rising
> insecurity and inequality, most people are doing fine

This came up here before. Rose is really cherry-picking - he builds  
his argument towards the incomes of two-earner, prime-age, married- 
couple families, who are hardly representative of the population. He  
touts net worth dominated by home equity, which people can't  
meaningfully tap unless they sell the house and move into a trailer  
when they retire. It's wrong to say the American masses are  
suffering, but there are vast numbers barely getting by, and many of  
the well-off are fearful that they won't be forever (or that their  
kids won't be). He tries to make them disappear.

Oh and this: "These numbers all add up to this one: $23,700, the  
household income at which a white voter was more likely to vote  
Republican than Democratic in the 2004 congressional races." Race, of  
course, has nothing to do with this.

Doug