Bob Herbert: Winning the Class War

[brentspeak]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/opinion/27herbert.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB

Op-Ed Columnist
Winning the Class War
By BOB HERBERT
Published: November 26, 2010

The class war that no one wants to talk about continues unabated.

snip

A stark example of the potential for real conflict is being played out in New York City, where the multibillionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has selected a glittering example of the American aristocracy to be the city’s schools chancellor. Cathleen Black, chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, has a reputation as a crackerjack corporate executive but absolutely no background in education.

Ms. Black travels in the rarefied environs of the very rich. Her own children went to private boarding schools. She owns a penthouse on Park Avenue and a $4 million home in Southampton. She was able to loan a $47,600 Bulgari bracelet to a museum for an exhibit showing off the baubles of the city’s most successful women.

Ms. Black will be peering across an almost unbridgeable gap between her and the largely poor and working-class parents and students she will be expected to serve. Worse, Mr. Bloomberg, heralding Ms. Black as a “superstar manager,” has made it clear that because of budget shortfalls she will be focused on managing cutbacks to the school system.

So here we have the billionaire and the millionaire telling the poor and the struggling — the little people — that they will just have to make do with less. You can almost feel the bitterness rising.

[WCGreen]

1. This is the fruition of Trickle Down economics....

[ProSense]

2. Good commentary, and this point is key

Societal conflicts metastasize as resentments fester and scapegoats are sought. Demagogues inevitably emerge to feast on the poisonous stew of such an environment. The rich may think that the public won’t ever turn against them. But to hold that belief, you have to ignore the turbulent history of the 1930s.

Yup, they're coming out of the woodwork.

[Little Star]

3. Bob Herbert is right once again. k&r n/t

[Catherina]

4. Cake, cake and cake!

[Tippy]

5. K&R...we should learn our place....

Not at the table ...but under it...

[socialist_n_TN]

6. It's not a class war until we begin to fight back.............

until then it's just a class massacre. Good editorial.