Class

Thoma reposts a great article on class by Chris Dillow.

This perspective yields answers to three key questions which cannot be answered without the concepts of class and power:

• why has inequality increased since the 1980s? It’s because a mix of technical change and the emergence of a mass supply of cheap labor from China and India have increased the power of capital relative to labor.
• why is the pain of deficit reduction falling upon public sector workers and benefit claimants rather than the “rich”? It’s because the “rich” have power and workers and benefit claimants don’t.
• why did the state bail out bankers but not ordinary workers who lost their jobs? It’s because bankers have power - though the precise source of this is another question.

Usually I'd say go to the source, but the repost is much more readable.  Have a glance at the original and you'll see why.

And that Marx!  What a guy, eh!?!
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