THE NEW AMERICAN ELITE
By Alan Caruba
Let me put it in personal terms. When I was born in the late 1930s, my Mother washed the family laundry by hand and hung it out to dry on sunny days or in the basement of our home if it was raining. We were not poor. We were middle class. My Father was a Certified Public Accountant and we lived in a spacious suburban home in an upscale New Jersey community. Mass produced washers and dryers would arrive after the end of World War Two.
The differences between lower economic classes, the middle class, and upper classes were well defined back then. All, however, generally held the same values regarding societal institutions such as marriage, religion, and national pride. Those values have eroded since the 1960s and Charles Murray, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, whose new book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 ($27.00, Crown Forum) tells you how and why.
Murray takes the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, as the starting point, noting, for example:
“Part of these widely shared values lay in the religiosity of America in 1963,” and Murray compares this to a 1963 Gallup poll in which --
“The racial differences in income, education, and occupations were all huge, noted Murray. “The civil rights movement was the biggest domestic issue of the early 1960s….” By 1963, “Poverty had been dropping so rapidly for so many years that Americans thought things were going well.”
The changes in values that many Americans deplore today were coming. “The first oral contraceptive pill had gone on the market in 1960 and its use was spreading widely.” Murray points out:
“This book,” wrote Murray, “is about the evolution in American society that has taken place since November 21, 1963, leading to the formation of classes that are different in kind and in their degree of separation from anything that the nation has ever known.”
The culture that Americans shared uniquely and in contrast to much of the world, warns Murray “is unraveling” as “America is coming apart at the seams — not the seams of race or ethnicity, but of class.”
Murray defines the new upper class “as the most successful five percent of adults ages 25 and older who are working in managerial positions, in the professions (medicine, the law, engineering and architecture, the sciences, and university faculty), and in content-production jobs in the media.”
That’s a very small slice of 330 million Americans.
They are not the “millionaires and billionaires” that President Obama is always blathering about. They are the new “establishment” that determine much about the nation’s culture, economy, and future.
To boil down Murray’s extensive research and reporting, that top 5 percent are largely isolated from the rest of the population because they tend to live where their counterparts live and interact mostly with one another in all aspects of their lives. They are the new “elite.”
“Rolling back income inequality won’t make any difference in the isolation of the new upper class from the rest of America.” They are wealthy by most standards and Murray expects them to become wealthier over time. Thus, all the talk of “fairness” and “a fair share” is meaningless.
“Fairness” as many point out, is just another word for “class warfare.” It has always been the siren call of Communism.
Efforts in America and in Europe to create “fairness” in the form of our “entitlement” programs and the extensive European socialism have reached a point where they threaten to collapse our own and the economies of many European nations.
Murray says “We have been the product of the cultural capital bequeathed to us by the system the Founders laid down -- a system that says people must be free to live life as they see fit and to be responsible for the consequences of their actions; that it is not the government’s job to protect people from themselves; that it is not the government’s job to stage-manage how people interact with one another. Discard the system that created the cultural capital, and the qualities we have loved about Americans will go away.”
The system, of course, is free-market capitalism, deregulation, and lower marginal income tax rates -- all within the context of the U.S. Constitution. It is under attack by the President of the United States and a cohort of civil service and industrial unions, along with Liberal members of Congress.
It is why the Republican primaries have been, in part, a desperate effort to educate Americans to the reason America is in peril and why Americans must strive to restore the values that were shared on November 22, 1963.
© Alan Caruba, 2012
Religion, Secularism, & America
Liberalism Versus Conservatism in American Politics
-------------------------
Traditional Conservatism: Questions & Answers
Conservatism: Attitudes, Types, & Present Status
Constitutional Conservatism: American & British
Liberalism
Classical Liberalism: Intellectual Foundations
Classical Liberalism: Conservative Liberalism
Manchester Liberalism & Social Darwinism
Modern Social "Liberalism": Statist "Liberalism"
Radical & Totalitarian Ideologies
Radicalism, Utopianism, & Totalitarianism
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume XIV, 2011
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
Africa: Black Africa *
Africa: North Africa *
American Government 1
LINKS TO PARTICULAR ISSUES & SUBJECT MATTER CATEGORIES
TREATED IN THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, U.S.A.:
American Government 2 *
American Government 3 *
American Government 4
American Government 5 *
American Politics *
Anglosphere *
Arabs
Arms Control & WMD *
Aztlan Separatists *
Big Government
Black Africa *
Bureaucracy *
Canada *
China *
Civil Liberties *
Communism
Congress, U.S. *
Conservative Groups *
Conservative vs. Liberal
Constitutional Law *
Counterterrorism *
Criminal Justice *
Disloyalty *
Economy
Education *
Elections, U.S. *
Eminent Domain *
Energy & Environment
English-Speaking World *
Ethnicity & Race *
Europe *
Europe: Jews
Family Values *
Far East *
Fiscal Policy, U.S. *
Foreign Aid, U.S. *
Foreign Policy, U.S.
France *
Germany *
Hispanic Separatism *
Hispanic Treason *
Human Health *
Immigration *
Infrastructure, U.S. *
Intelligence, U.S. *
Iran *
Iraq *
Islamic North Africa
Islamic Threat *
Islamism *
Israeli vs. Arabs *
Jews & Anti-Semitism
Jihad & Jihadism *
Jihad Manifesto I *
Jihad Manifesto II *
Judges, U.S. Federal
Judicial Appointments *
Judiciary, American *
Latin America *
Latino Separatism
Latino Treason *
Lebanon *
Leftists/Liberals *
Legal Issues
Local Government, U.S. *
Marriage & Family *
Media Political Bias
Middle East: Arabs *
Middle East: Iran *
Middle East: Iraq *
Middle East: Israel
Middle East: Lebanon *
Middle East: Syria *
Middle East: Tunisia
Middle East: Turkey *
Militant Islam *
Military Defense *
Military Justice
Military Weaponry *
Modern Welfare State *
Morality & Decency
National Identity *
National Security *
Natural Resources *
News Media Bias
North Africa *
Patriot Act, USA *
Patriotism *
Political Culture *
Political Ideologies
Political Parties *
Political Philosophy *
Politics, American *
Presidency, U.S.
Private Property *
Property Rights *
Public Assistance *
Radical Islam
Religion & America *
Rogue States & WMD *
Russia *
Science & Ethics
Sedition & Treason *
Senate, U.S. *
Social Welfare Policy *
South Africa
State Government, U.S. *
Subsaharan Africa *
Subversion *
Syria *
Terrorism 1
Terrorism 2 *
Treason & Sedition *
Tunisia *
Turkey *
Ukraine
UnAmerican Activity *
UN & Its Agencies *
USA Patriot Act *
U.S. Foreign Aid
U.S. Infrastructure *
U.S. Intelligence *
U.S. Senate *
War & Peace
Welfare Policy *
WMD & Arms Control
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor