Sunday, April 28, 2013

Zweig and Greider

{quotes} "Deep change does not begin in the political process or with single issues; it begins among ordinary people deciding to change their circumstances" (Greider, 253). The articles at hand deal with this issue of class and how exactly America understands the division of it. Greider's article talks about moral economy and our problem with the idea of class in America and how to fix it. He talks about moral economy being and economy that "serves people and society first". He goes on to talk about how in this country capitalism causes "destruction of family and community, democracy, nature, and equality". Capitalism is a problem in this country. It causes what he calls 'abundance'. Meaning that goods and wealth exist in our society but it tends to get away from most people which leaves them with anxiety in order to keep up with life. He goes on to talk about how we need to fix this society. It cannot happen through the government because they always seem to not get it right. He says it needs to be fixed by society itself. The government can encourage positive change but society is the ones that need to do it. Society need to dream a little and put those dreams to work. For examples he says, start new companies, reform existing ones, and start new financial institutions. Society needs to be the one to change this. I mostly agree with where he is going with this but it is also difficult in a way. While I agree that society does need to take the reins on this, I also think government help is necessary. He is asking people to start new companies or reform old ones but it is difficult when an abundance of America is working class. They work to make ends meet how is he suggesting they are able to start new companies. It just does not seem feasible. Government help would be essential.
           
          Zweig's article goes over the six points about class. He talks about what needs to be changed about the idea people have of class and the way it is represented. First issue he talks about is how we need to change people's understanding of class. He states that many people see class in terms of "rich and poor" and they need to see it in terms of "worker and capitalist". Class needs to be broken down by power not by "wealth, income, or life style" (Zweig, 2). This tends to separate class from race and gender and that is something that it should not do. His second point was about two problems in American politics. That it makes us focus to much on race and we loss sight of class and that the "political target gets confused". When race gets involved with class we tend to lose sight of the divide. Many people hear poor and think Black when in reality most poor people in America are white. When it comes to politics we tend to blame the rich as the "the source of America's political misdirection". When in reality its really the capitalist class and their aim for a profit, not caring who gets in their way even if its the rest of America. Some of the other points he makes focus around pinpointing what class exactly is and having the country acknowledge it. Society needs to know what it is and how it not only affects us locally but globally too. Zweig talks about how we have to be aware of global economy and how class effects us on a global scale. It can cause job loss, cheap labor, and capital flight. Overall class is discussed in both of these articles. Telling us how much society is affected by it whether we acknowledge it or not and how we need to be part of the change. We need to bring class into the lights and help fix the whole class structure if we essentially want to fix America.

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