In Defence of Marxism

The American Dream was based on the idea that anyone with a bit of hard work and sacrifice could make it. Since the mid-1970s that dream has faded somewhat. Adjusted for inflation, wages for most Americans have stagnated since then.

President Reagan did his bit by cutting taxes for the rich, justifying it with the idea that this would spur prosperity for all. What actually happened? Incomes for the top one percent of American families doubled while income for those at the bottom declined. Seventy percent of income growth between 1979 and 1989 was accounted for by the top one percent of wage earners. Instead of reducing poverty, by the end of the 1980s the US poverty rate was 20 percent higher than it was in 1973.

Since then the process has continued with Americans at the very top of the wage scale doing better than ever. The top 20% of American families now control almost half of US income while the bottom 20% is left with less than 5% to share out between them. The gap between rich and poor is at its widest since the end of the Second World War.

Growing polarisation between rich and poor leads to greater social and political instability. The US ruling class is sitting on a time bomb!