Asked what she'd like to see from the tax commission, Kennedy didn't hestitate. "Flatness,'' she said. "Our revenue stream is way too progressive.'' But no matter how you slice it, she said, changes that come out of it may be seen as "a tax increase to the middle of the structure.''
This comes against the backdrop of Arnold's proposal of massive and reckless budget cuts. The cuts include an end to the state's Healthy Families program, which pays for health care for 1 million children (Arnold plans to turn down 3 times as much federal funding as the state spends for this program - and the feds recently expanded that funding as part of the S-CHIP program, one of the first laws signed by President Obama); elimination of welfare; elimination of the Cal Grant program which gives money to financially needy students to attend college - at the same time that the colleges are raising their fees; and closure of 80% of state parks, which are a vital source of tourist revenue for many, many towns in the state. This is on top of the previous elimination of state funding for local transit agencies, which was approved by the Legislature in February.
These cuts rip the basis of the middle-class out from underneath it, as it destroys the safety net and further immiserates the poor. And it is explicitly being done to protect the rich, as Arnold's right-wing ideologue finance director Mike Genest explained:
"Genest said the reason cuts are disproportionately targeting the poor is that 'the government doesn't provide services to rich people.'"
Assuming all of these cuts happen - and even though they have a majority of seats in the Legislature, Democrats are signaling their intent to go along with the California shock doctrine - then the middle class in this state, the archetype of the postwar American dream, will steadily vanish. There will be no safety net for the jobless. Their taxes will rise but they will see no benefits as their children will struggle to get an education, to get a job at a competitive wage, to find economic security.
California will still have enclaves of the fantastically wealthy, who will have even less of a tax burden than they do now, but everyone else will be struggling to get by, with varying degrees of success.
It's very distressing. And the world will live as one
You really, really, really do not want to piss off the middle class to the point where they have no choice but to start organising and taking action if they're going to survive. At all.
Maybe today's Thyssens will be smarter, and get out of the country while the going is good.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
Good thing I'm not cynical, huh? The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
Once those extremes stop being involuntary, you're left with a group of people who are smart, capable and angry.
Probably three quarters will decide to blame themselves and fall into depression and despair.
The remainder will rediscover solidarity and turn into something you really don't want in your state.
All it takes is exactly one competent and charismatic leader, out of millions of potentials, and you have an interesting situation.
All it takes is exactly one competent and charismatic leader...
Perhaps when the majority of those who fancy themselves as "middle class" economically are in extremis they will consider being so gauche as to actually take concerted action to secure their and their children's future. But then, perhaps not. As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
