{"id":14015,"date":"2013-02-26T09:07:35","date_gmt":"2013-02-26T14:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=14015"},"modified":"2013-02-26T01:13:20","modified_gmt":"2013-02-26T06:13:20","slug":"scenes-from-the-class-war-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/26\/scenes-from-the-class-war-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Scenes from the class war"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe>\n<\/p>\u201cThe unemployment rate is still at a level which should cause politicians to panic.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.eschatonblog.com\/2013\/01\/green-shoots.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">No one is panicking<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cIf the minimum wage had risen in step with productivity growth [since 1968], it would be over $16.50 an hour today. That is <a href=\"http:\/\/seeingtheforest.com\/40-of-americans-now-make-less-than-1968-minimum-wage\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">higher than the hourly wages earned by 40 percent of men and half of women<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cMore than half of the people who became unemployed during the recession found a new job within six weeks, but a majority of them found <a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/economy\/2013\/02\/12\/1576821\/workers-who-lost-jobs-during-the-recession-are-finding-new-ones-but-at-lower-pay\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">jobs that paid less than the one they lost<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cInsurance companies are in the habit of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/consumerist.com\/2013\/01\/28\/consumer-group-the-rich-may-pay-less-for-car-insurance-even-if-theyre-not-safe-drivers\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">charging higher premium to safe, low- or moderate-income drivers<\/a>\u00a0than to richer people who were at fault for an accident.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cWhile the banks, which include giants like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, do not make the loans,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/wonkette.com\/502721\/banks-joining-up-with-payday-lenders-to-find-creative-ways-to-screw-poors\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">they are a critical link for the [payday] lenders<\/a>, enabling the lenders to withdraw payments automatically from borrowers\u2019 bank accounts, even in states where the loans are banned entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/economy\/2013\/01\/30\/1514461\/states-tax-rich-half-poor\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-14016\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2013\/02\/StateTaxes.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"396\" height=\"230\"><\/a>\u201cNearly 40 percent of U.S. workers who care for the elderly\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/economy\/2013\/01\/28\/1503391\/a-vicious-new-strain-of-stomach-flu-makes-the-case-for-paid-sick-leave\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">lack even a single paid sick day<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cYou think this is the best healthcare system in the world?\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jlake.com\/2013\/02\/06\/cancer-best-healthcare-system-in-the-world-my-tumor-riddled-ass\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Walk a mile in my shoes<\/a>, then say that.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cThere is no greater threat to privacy than the creation of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/consumerist.com\/2013\/02\/06\/lawmakers-call-on-equifax-to-prove-that-scary-huge-employment-info-database-is-legal\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">a database of sensitive consumer financial and personal information sold for profit<\/a>\u00a0for purposes that are unclear and without the knowledge of the consumer.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cThe comparison of payments to seniors with payments to children makes as much sense as comparing payments to bondholders with payments to children. It is understandable that people who want to cut Social Security and Medicare would make such comparisons \u2026 but <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cepr.net\/index.php\/blogs\/beat-the-press\/the-government-spends-100-on-bondholders-for-every-dollar-it-spends-on-children\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">it is hard to see why anyone engaged in honest policy debate would take such comparisons seriously<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cIt costs money, it doesn\u2019t benefit the rich, and it\u2019s something Obama wants. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/kevin-drum\/2013\/02\/no-republicans-will-not-support-expanded-pre-k\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">That\u2019s three strikes<\/a>, and that\u2019s all she wrote.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cArkansas is the one and only state in the nation with a law that says\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/wonkette.com\/500590\/arkansas-will-not-be-squatted-in\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">you can be put in jail for not paying your rent<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cWe prefer to talk about poverty when it is manageable,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/dlmayfield.wordpress.com\/2013\/02\/10\/katherine-boo-short-term-missions-and-the-earned-fact\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">when it can be solved by us \u2013\u0094 conveniently<\/a>\u00a0with a certain project that we can donate to and thus help \u2018cure\u2019 the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cFar from being \u2018priceless,\u2019 as the promoters of ever-more spending on higher education would have Americans believe, both undergraduate and post-graduate <a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2013\/02\/04\/student_loans_the_next_housing_bubble\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">education is turning out to be a catastrophic investment<\/a> for many young and not-so-young adults.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cUnless, I guess, there\u2019\u0099s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sadlyno.com\/archives\/38235.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">that lash of necessity, that fear of real privation<\/a>, people will make poor decisions about their families.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201c[Tenn.] State Sen. Stacey Campfield has proposed legislation that would\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.indecisionforever.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/29\/tennessee-may-starve-children-until-their-grades-improve\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">cut welfare benefits to parents whose children fail to make \u2018satisfactory academic progress\u2019<\/a>\u00a0in school.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cHe chose to call himself out as a royal dickhead for life, because <a href=\"http:\/\/slog.thestranger.com\/slog\/archives\/2013\/02\/01\/local-coffee-chain-starts-charging-customers-a-15-percent-sick-leave-surcharge\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">now we all know he wasn\u2019t paying for sick leave before forced to by law<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/defendyourdollars.org\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">DefendYourDollars.org<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe unemployment rate is still at a level which should cause politicians to panic.\u00a0No one is panicking.\u201d \u201cIf the minimum wage had risen in step with productivity growth [since 1968], it would be over $16.50 an hour today. That is higher than the hourly wages earned by 40 percent of men and half of women.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[58,27,36],"class_list":["post-14015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class-warfare","tag-greed","tag-politics","tag-work"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Scenes from the class war<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""The unemployment rate is still at a level which should cause politicians to panic.\u00a0No one is panicking." "If the minimum wage had risen in step with\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/26\/scenes-from-the-class-war-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scenes from the class war\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""The unemployment rate is still at a level which should cause politicians to panic.\u00a0No one is panicking." "If the minimum wage had risen in step with\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/26\/scenes-from-the-class-war-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-26T14:07:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-02-26T06:13:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2013\/02\/StateTaxes.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/26\/scenes-from-the-class-war-3\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/26\/scenes-from-the-class-war-3\/\",\"name\":\"Scenes from the class war\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-02-26T14:07:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-02-26T06:13:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"\\\"The unemployment rate is still at a level which should cause politicians to panic.\u00a0No one is panicking.\\\" \\\"If the minimum wage had risen in step with\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/26\/scenes-from-the-class-war-3\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/26\/scenes-from-the-class-war-3\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/26\/scenes-from-the-class-war-3\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Scenes from the class war\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\",\"name\":\"slacktivist\",\"description\":\""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\",\"name\":\"Fred Clark\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Fred Clark\"},\"description\":\"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Scenes from the class war","description":"\"The unemployment rate is still at a level which should cause politicians to panic.\u00a0No one is panicking.\" \"If the minimum wage had risen in step with","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/26\/scenes-from-the-class-war-3\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Scenes from the class war","og_description":"\"The unemployment rate is still at a level which should cause politicians to panic.\u00a0No one is panicking.\" \"If the minimum wage had risen in step with","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/26\/scenes-from-the-class-war-3\/","og_site_name":"slacktivist","article_published_time":"2013-02-26T14:07:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-02-26T06:13:20+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2013\/02\/StateTaxes.jpg"}],"author":"Fred Clark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fred Clark","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/26\/scenes-from-the-class-war-3\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/26\/scenes-from-the-class-war-3\/","name":"Scenes from the class war","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-02-26T14:07:35+00:00","dateModified":"2013-02-26T06:13:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47"},"description":"\"The unemployment rate is still at a level which should cause politicians to panic.\u00a0No one is panicking.\" \"If the minimum wage had risen in step with","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/26\/scenes-from-the-class-war-3\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/26\/scenes-from-the-class-war-3\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/02\/26\/scenes-from-the-class-war-3\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Scenes from the class war"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/","name":"slacktivist","description":""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47","name":"Fred Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Fred Clark"},"description":"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14015\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}