American Class System: My Essay

  • Thread starter Deleted member 5487
  • Start date
D

Deleted member 5487

Guest
American Class Structure

As ray peat said “Class” was taken out of politics in the 1960s, and replaced with identity/cultural issues.

The masses are then constantly pitted against each other.

“RP: If people think they are being treated fairly by the government, they won’t oppose what it does. For many years, schools, mass media, and government agencies have convinced lower income people that they are in the “middle class,” by publicizing the median personal or household income, which they often call average income, rather than the actual average income. At present, the median household income in the U.S. is about $54,000, and the average household income is about $140,000. I’ve spoken to many educated people, including newspaper writers, over the last several decades who were unaware of the real numbers. In a graduate seminar in 1960, the professor interrupted me to say “there are no classes in the United States.” I had heard that in high school, but I was shocked to hear it bluntly stated by a professor, and it sensitized me to the extent of the craziness that constitutes our public culture.”

American Class System:



1) Deep State- These are upper brass positions of secret agencies, Military, Electoral, Judges, Council on foreign relations, Bilderberg, leaders of Massive hedge funds like BlackRock/State street: who control 10% equity in every S&P 500 company.

Their power comes from connections, control, and the state. At any time, they can hack into an oligarchs phone, email, and can even kill if people don’t “tug the line”.


2) Oligarchy: .0001% Highest capital holding-Individuals. These are extremely wealthy who do the deep states bidding, provide funding, and support. They run huge companies and implement whatever the Deep State says. Facebook, amazon, google are all being used right now. At least Billionaires.


3) New Nobility: .01% Those “along for the ride” people who have gotten extremely rich within the system. Their political connections are local, their influence minimal. They frolic about the empire, dine, dress in designer, giant houses, awesome cars…etc. These people give the bottom 99% hope and illusion of social mobility. 10Million +.

4) Upper Caste: 1% Incomes are in 500k+ range. Upper brass doctors, lawyers, small business owners. These people live lifestyle similar to the nobility just on a lesser scale. Their actual power is limited to school boards, community groups, and small donations to local politicians. They have pretty much everything at their disposal, food delivered, ubers to drive them, designer clothing, newest technology, and no fear of raising taxes. They live in the city, with short commutes to work which greatly lessens their burdens of commute/stress/traffic..etc.

5) Upper Middle- 10% These peoples income are generally 100k+. They have to live budgeted lives and are experiencing pressure from the system. Mortgages, long commutes, traffic, kids, taxes are slowing grinding these people down. Their in the “Pressure cooker”. Tax Donkeys

6) Lower Middle-45k-80k Incomes. A lot of college educated individuals with entry level jobs or two income household workers. They experience debt-peonage service to student loans, rent to their land“lords”, a raising cost of living. With plenty of cheap entertainment and ignorance of their situation they take day by day, Generally jockeying for status on social media, frequenting the bars, living at home.

7) Working Class: Blue color positions 30k-50ks. They are poor and live hard working, long hours and are very squeezed

8) Working poor. 24k or so. Minimum wages, retails, bars, servers…etc. A debt-peonage of sorts

9) Unemployed-Welfare-State Dependents.


Going forward Class 7-8 will slowly be replaced and shrink due to technology, automation. Class 6 will be outsourced, class 5 pool of jobs will continue to shrink and people will crowd around them in hope of making it, 1% will largely be safe, they run the business/services that provide for both the bottom 99%. They can deflate their labor, outsource their contract work…etc. to keep their profits high.

The new nobility will slow down in spending slightly, but still live life’s never dreamed of by aristocrats of old. The oligarchy and deep state will continue to seize assets, control, and dominance of the bottom 99% as they strip-Mine the nation.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

tygertgr

Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2019
Messages
115
"In multiracial societies, you don't vote in accordance with your economic interests and social interests, you vote in accordance with race and religion." --Lee Kwan Yew on democracy vs. multiculturalism
 

Cirion

Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2017
Messages
3,731
Location
St. Louis, Missouri
I would tend to agree with using average instead of median income to define middle class. Median income or even above median income, you still feel the pressure of taxes and loans heavily. Somewhere in the 100k's (140k in this case) does sound about right for the point at which housing and food does become pretty much trivial anywhere in the US for the most part.

I was just mentioning in another thread that its for this reason, that I think people less than middle class (I had used a cut off of about 111,000$ because that's the top 20% of taxpayers in the US) should pay little or even no taxes to help out 80% of people. because 80% of people make less than 111k. Removing tax burdens on this subset of people would go a long ways.

I hold mostly conservative views and as such disagree with many socialist and liberal policies, but absolutely agree that the government and branches/subsets of it hold way too much power. People complain about facebook, amazon and others a lot, but the fact is, they are just servants of the real people in power as you suggested, so even if you removed facebook or amazon, another would take its place (Hydra and its regrowing heads). The deep state as you put it, is Hydra.

Amazon I think is worth almost $1 trillion. That's a lot, but a drop in the ocean compared to the governments' worth and especially compared to the worlds' worth (the US government gets 3.4 trillion a year in revenue, so over 3 times amazon's entire net worth per year).

The problem is, Hydra can't be defeated. The system sucks, so all we can do is play it and try to move up to class 4-5 at least and be insulated from all the crap to come. That's my plan. 4-5 can be achieved by just about anyone who is willing to live frugally and invest. Even 3 is, but takes a bit more time and effort. I have no delusions of ever getting past #3, but at least by 3-4 you're set for sure.

Even if you managed to stage a successful coup or something, things might be okay for a while but then just go back to the way they were, or even get worse.
 
Last edited:
OP
D

Deleted member 5487

Guest
"In multiracial societies, you don't vote in accordance with your economic interests and social interests, you vote in accordance with race and religion." --Lee Kwan Yew on democracy vs. multiculturalism

Voting serves as a way to legitimize a ruler this are picked by the oligarchy. A plutocracy, a comedy.
It allows the peasants the illusion of control, America is run brilliantly.

Not to say their isn't a difference between the two parties. Having you "man" in the office can serve your intrests, and lead billions in cash flow

Democrat: Technocratic Oligarchy, Pharma(obomacare), Regulation, Clean Energy(solar)
Republic: Old Oil and Financial Deregulation, Tax cuts, invading big tech
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Cirion

Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2017
Messages
3,731
Location
St. Louis, Missouri
I am sure a lot of people don't believe the Bible here but it is basically predicted there that eventually there will be one man that will rule the whole world. He will be in a class in-and-of itself, even higher than the deep state, and control even them. And people will love him at first, but he will eventually betray people, especially those that don't like or support him. Even if you don't believe what's written there, it seems quite plausible this could happen.

I wonder if Bitcoin and cryptos are what will eventually be the One World Government form of currency?... Hmm, speculation of course. But could very well be... Everything is going to electronic/digital format after all, why not currency also?
 

tygertgr

Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2019
Messages
115
Voting serves as a way to legitimize a ruler this are picked by the oligarchy. A plutocracy, a comedy.
It allows the peasants the illusion of control, America is run brilliantly.

Not to say their isn't a difference between the two parties. Having you "man" in the office can serve your intrests, and lead billions in cash flow

Democrat: Technocratic Oligarchy, Pharma(obomacare), Regulation, Clean Energy(solar)
Republic: Old Oil and Financial Deregulation, Tax cuts, invading big tech

Representative democracy does work OK in monocultural societies with powerful middle class norms. It's not a snow job. Multiculturalism, multi-ethnic demographics, and many policies destructive of middle-class norms were deliberately imposed starting in the 60s. This is why democracy is no longer tenable, whereas it worked to some extent 70 years ago in the USA.
 

sunraiser

Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2017
Messages
549
Representative democracy does work OK in monocultural societies with powerful middle class norms. It's not a snow job. Multiculturalism, multi-ethnic demographics, and many policies destructive of middle-class norms were deliberately imposed starting in the 60s. This is why democracy is no longer tenable, whereas it worked to some extent 70 years ago in the USA.

When your entire world view is formed around your fear of different ethnicities then how on earth do you ever hope to grow or develop any kind of objective wisdom?

Fine, make an argument about immigration undermining labour wages if you like but this is flat out wearing-on-your-sleeve racism.

Not that you're not entitled to your view, but anyone that has actually spent any degree of time with people of different ethnicities and faiths can immediately see you're patently wrong - humans are human, it just takes experience to learn that fact.
 

tygertgr

Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2019
Messages
115
anyone that has actually spent any degree of time with people of different ethnicities and faiths can immediately see you're patently wrong - humans are human, it just takes experience to learn that fact.

Talk like this usually comes from people who have never really experienced a foreign culture in any depth. Peoples are very different. It's usually from upper middle class Euros or American who have had some selective dealings with foreigners that happen to be assimilated to their worldview.
 

LUH 3417

Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2016
Messages
2,990
Talk like this usually comes from people who have never really experienced a foreign culture in any depth. Peoples are very different. It's usually from upper middle class Euros or American who have had some selective dealings with foreigners that happen to be assimilated to their worldview.
Do you think racism is fomented or natural due to the “peoples [being] very different?”
 

tygertgr

Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2019
Messages
115
BTW, these income based class analyses like Ray takes a stab at above are typically pretty dumb. Over 40 years, 70% of the population made it into the top 20% of earners for at least one year. There is a lot of income mobility, both upwards and downwards. If your analysis begins with income it's probably wrong.
 

Kartoffel

Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2017
Messages
1,199
and the average household income is about $140,000.

That number is wrong. What kind of distribution has a median of $54,000 and a mean of $140,000?
 

lampofred

Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
3,244
That number is wrong. What kind of distribution has a median of $54,000 and a mean of $140,000?

A distribution that is skewed to the right with very rich outliers...
 

Kartoffel

Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2017
Messages
1,199
A distribution that is skewed to the right with very rich outliers...

Not that much. Do you have a source for that number? The number might be right, if you had actual data on the income of the top 1% but the census bureau doesn't have them.
 

lampofred

Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
3,244
Not that much. Do you have a source for that number? The number might be right, if you had actual data on the income of the top 1% but the census bureau doesn't have them.

I wasn't the one who posted the number but I think it's from Ray Peat. I remember reading that as a quote by him on the "random quote" section of this site.
 

LeeLemonoil

Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2016
Messages
4,265
Talk like this usually comes from people who have never really experienced a foreign culture in any depth. Peoples are very different. It's usually from upper middle class Euros or American who have had some selective dealings with foreigners that happen to be assimilated to their worldview.

Theres a lot it. I rate @sunraiser ‘s political acumen and contributions here on RPF and I‘d like to think you both have fair points.

tygerter is absolutely right about the relationship between a fairly functional democracy and a stable middle class. Only a broad, financially and workplace-secure middle class with good education can participate adequately in democratic processes and can even find the time to be informed about political affairs.
If such a society is culturally homogenous it seems that’s even better. But that might just be a correlation instead of a cause.
We have only one empirical time-period to observe the downfall of functioning democratic societies. The postwar-west up until the early 90s. Elites recognized that to foster their power, the middle classes have to be eroded and all that comes with it. Globalization coincides with that Endeavour and such the dehomogenization of successful democracies. It’s likely that the middle classes would have eroded without migration-influx but it‘s also likely that migration of uneducated, culturally very different people into the western democracies hastened the downfall. It is not a necessary condition and reason on its own, but it cannot be ignored either out of misunderstood identity-considerations.
 

tygertgr

Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2019
Messages
115
Not that much. Do you have a source for that number? The number might be right, if you had actual data on the income of the top 1% but the census bureau doesn't have them.

If you include liquidity events from people selling off businesses/equity I don't find that surprising at all and would not be surprised were it higher. In fact, the higher that number from such events the better, economically speaking. Lots of people have a good run building a business, and that's a good thing.

All the rhetoric on annual income is a smokescreen to obscure ongoing grifts and legally protected rentier arrangements. It's about government types stirring up class resentments in people who are too lazy to think through how the government is robbing them. They'd rather just hear the government is going to steal from "the rich" and give them stuff.
 

LUH 3417

Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2016
Messages
2,990
There is no such thing as "racism." It's just a smear word used to shut down discussion.
So anti-miscegenation laws are just part of a smear campaign?

From Wikipedia, which can’t be trusted, but the dates are referenced if you feel like looking into it.

In 1967, 17 Southern states (all the former slave states plus Oklahoma) still enforced laws prohibiting marriage between whites and non-whites. Maryland repealed its law in response to the start of the proceedings at the Supreme Court. After the ruling of the Supreme Court, the remaining laws were no longer enforceable. Nonetheless, it took Mississippiuntil 1987, South Carolina until 1998 and Alabamauntil 2000 to amend their states' constitutions to remove language prohibiting miscegenation. In the respective referendums, 52% of voters in Mississippi, 62% of voters in South Carolina and 59% of voters in Alabama voted to make the amendments. In Alabama nearly 526,000 people voted against the amendment, including a majority of voters in some rural counties.[29][30][31][32]
 

Cirion

Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2017
Messages
3,731
Location
St. Louis, Missouri
Most of the truly rich people don't even have income, in the sense of income taxable income. Most very wealthy people are taxed via capital gains, which is not considered "Income". This is why owning businesses and investments are the far superior way to make money. Capital gains tax caps at 15%. So you can have a pretty low income but a massive (billions) of net worth.

Only plebeians and peasants pay income tax. Yes even a 1-2M income is peasantry compared to giants like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, etc.
 
Last edited:

Similar threads

D
Replies
290
Views
26K
Back
Top Bottom