this is an op ed from a guy at my local newspaper. he said if he were giving a commencement speech to the class of 2012 this is what he would say. in his columns he is all over the political spectrum. sometimes he comes off as a liberal while others he comes off as a staunch conservative. i agree with him maybe 70% of the time. this is one of the times i happen to agree with him. there is not a lot to discuss that we have not already debated to death on here, but i thought i would share anyway..
Graduates, meet Oligarchy, your new overlord
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/colu ... e5cf3.html
Good morning, graduates.
As your commencement speaker, it is my task to give you advice as you start your postschool journey.
So here goes: If you win the lottery, take your winnings in a lump sum.
Beyond that, I have no advice. You are headed to a place I have never been.
You are headed into an oligarchy.
All of us are.
Some of you know what an oligarchy is. Don't pat yourselves on the back. You are the ones in the most trouble. You are probably history majors. What are you going to do with your history degree? Sit around the campfire and swap stories with English majors?
Those of you with practical degrees have probably never heard of an oligarchy. Let me define it for you. It is a society in which power and wealth belong to a privileged few, but its most telling feature is the lack of a large and robust middle class.
The middle-class thing is what's most important. A person could argue that power and wealth are always concentrated among a privileged few. What was it George Orwell said in "Animal Farm" — all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others?
The America in which I grew up was distinguished by a massive and powerful middle class. The middle class drove the country.
That has changed. The middle class is shrinking. People fall out of it every day.
I won't bother you with theories about why this is happening. I suspect much of it has to do with globalization and the transfer of manufacturing jobs to lower-cost countries.
Some of you will be fortunate and will become functionaries in the oligarchy. Maybe you will be accountants or engineers. But eventually — and probably sooner rather than later — you will become obsolete and will fall out of the middle class.
Many of you, particularly those of you with liberal arts degrees, will head directly into the growing underclass.
Let me try to prepare you for that.
The first thing that will surprise you is the resentment afoot in the country. This resentment is not directed at the wealthy — They're job creators! They're overtaxed! — but at you. Yes, we're resentful of the poor.
I mention that people are falling out of the middle class. A man I know is one of them. He is in his late 50s. He was laid off from a managerial job. At first, he thought that somebody with his experience would be hired rather quickly. But that was not the case. He soon felt like an Untouchable.
He had too much experience. His work history was too rich. He would want too much. Plus, of course, he was of the age at which health becomes a concern. What employer would want to take that on?
When the Occupy people set up a camp at Kiener Plaza, he went down to take a look. He was too old for them! Actually, the Occupy people were mostly the age of his kids. What if one of his kids' friends saw him? Also, the Occupy people were too scruffy for him.
A short time later, he heard that some union people were joining with Occupy people to march to the Martin Luther King Bridge. He has never been a union guy, but he figured it would be an older, less scruffy crowd. He went.
He was walking on the edge of the marchers when a man in a passing car slowed down and shouted, "Get a job!"
My friend was puzzled. Did the driver think he didn't want a job? And why the anger? It made no sense.
I would say the same thing about many of the current arguments over taxes. The rich have always done well. Always. They did well long before the tax cuts of 2001. But now people worry about the rich. Even with their reduced tax rates, they're paying too much. What about the people who aren't paying any income tax at all? That's who we should go after!
You know, the elderly poor. Or struggling families with children.
Who can argue that with a straight face?
Those of you unfortunate enough to have studied history — and don't expect us to feel sorry for you — know that many of the countries to our south have had a long and sad history of oligarchies.
Are there any lessons to take from their stories?
Trust no one. That would be the lesson I'd take. The government, the church, the press, the courts. All the institutions that were supposed to look out for the people betrayed them.
Don't think it can't happen here. It has already started. The signs are everywhere. These seismic shifts have a terrible momentum, and once they start, I don't know if they can be reversed.
So good luck, Class of 2012. Good luck to all of us.
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