[lbo-talk] “It provokes screams from the left”

[Carrol Cox]

On 7/27/2011 8:56 PM, Bhaskar Sunkara wrote:
> Well, Reagan was probably even more hostile to Medicare and social security
> and the like and didn't pursue these policies.

It's a process. I don't have the chronology at my fingertips, but 
starting in the mid-70s a steady downward pressure on wages (including 
private & public  benefits). Reagan got that slimy "double-dip" 
provision in Social Security. Two-tier contracts. Broken or neutered 
unions (Greyhound, Hormel, the grocery chains), deregulation, state 
open-shop laws. Chipping away at school 'extras' eliminated some of what 
the WSJ called "subsidized middle-class wages." It's an endless list. 
Random contrasts such asyou offer are utterly irrelevant.

Carrol