To Create a Permanent Underclass
What we have going on in America is the slow, insidious creation of a permanent underclass of people. A population of fairly disposable individuals that are destined to work in low-paying service jobs with no protections, no opportunities for real advancement, and a never-ending supply of other workers who will take their place.
This is a society where government regulations are largely defanged and ineffectual. With the concerted effort of elected officials who continue to strive for "smaller government," we will have a population of workers that have little recourse when dealing with their corporate masters. These are people who will have very little political power and will certainly lack the wherewithal to vote against those condemning them to such an existence because the system is discouraging them to participate in civic life. Bear in mind that scores of Republican-governed states are enacting voter suppression laws that will keep lower class people from voicing their opinions at the ballot box. Disenfranchisement is the norm in this country.
And for those who can bear out standing in line for hours, or have successfully jumped all the hoops to show they can vote, there's little interest in wooing them over to a right-wing agenda in any case. This is why Mitt Romney's infamous "47 percent" video speaks volumes not just about the mindset of the elitist right wingers, but a call to continue suppressing entire groups of people who shouldn't be afforded the time of day and need to be written off. Welfare cases, government dependents, whatever bon mot they're insulted with, rich elitists want to have nothing to do with them.
Yet herein is the rub: rich elitists need cheap labor. The second rule of business is keep your costs low, and that always starts with cheap labor. (The first rule is always use other people's money). If you can get government regulations out of the way, you won't need to be bothered with paying your workers any more than is necessary to meet the bottom line. You prevent them from forming unions. You change the rules to keep the poor and middle classes anchored firmly in a position that you control. So you can't completely write them off because poor people form the backbone of service industries with little pay. You depend on middle class people to do the bulk of the spending, but you sure as hell don't want any particular mobility.
And all across this country, the elitists have been making sure the System keeps everyone in their place. Under the lie of "fiscal responsibility," people are being sold lie after lie that unions are evil and stop job creation. That the federal government has an out-of-control spending problem that requires the antidote of austerity. In uncertain economic times, the rich will want to hoard their money even more, and they certainly do not want to be taxed at higher rates. Thus, rich elitists create astroturf "movements" like the Tea Party to insist that tax rates on the middle class are horrible, unfair and unconstitutional. By putting the middle class in front and center, it looks like a populist uprising. It's anything but. For an elitist to protect his money from any more taxation during a downward economy, you cry for austerity; you insist the problem lies in Washington D.C., and that "entitlement programs" need to be cut. Why? Well, why give any money to depressed lower and middle classes? That will come mostly from the top 1 percent. Bear in mind again, these people do not create wealth: they inherit and hoard it. Anything that smells like a potential tax hike on that wealth will be met with the stiffest resistance. In this case, it comes in the form of said astroturf groups.
Put another way: "I'm rich, and I don't want the government to increase my tax rate, so I'm going to put it peoples' minds that we need austerity. We need to kick people of welfare, food stamps and any other kind of aid. The money ain't gonna come from me; it should come from the middle class."
And the result has been a successful but ultimately bogus movement, the Tea Party, whose members remain deeply ignorant of how they're being manipulated by elitists. Convince the poor and the middle class that the federal government is the enemy; that it's spending money like there's no tomorrow. You can easily whip people up into believing it and thinking, "Yeah, the feds have the spending problem and they want to take it out on me!" So you have an entire cadre of voters casting ballots for their own subjugation and demise. The elitists won't have to spend anything: it's all coming from programs and services that we all pay for but are used mainly by the poor and lower-middle class families. (For those who start developing a conscience about it, the course of action is to blame illegal immigrants as the recipients of this largesse). And by the way, let's start hacking away at collective bargaining and unions to enrich our own coffers while we're at it. Anything that keeps the middle class relatively powerless means one thing: more power and money for me, none for thee.
The elitists want a powerless and compliant underclass because it means more money and influence they can use when purchasing politicians who run on the platform of "we're spending beyond our means." Getting these people in Congress means the potential of obliterating all social safety laws and regulation, and then tapping an enormous market for privatization. And when that happens, you are no longer in control of anything: not your government, not your health, not your own choices. What an irony: it's the totalitarian system these people tried to pin on the Feds, except by that point, there's nothing you can do about it.