Lowered Expectations

Gordon Lafer has an important piece in Radical Philosophy exploring 2011’s widespread attack on working-class and union rights in so many states. Lafer rounds up the massive damage done to the working-class and points his finger at the expected suspects–ALEC, the Koch Brothers, the Chamber of Commerce, etc. I think the most important part of this piece is Lafer’s thinking about the long-term impact for both corporations and workers:

Why was 2011 the year that brought such a ferocious assault on labour standards? At the most macro-level, the legislative battles of the past year must be viewed in the context of the long-term economic decline experienced by working- and middle-class Americans. For the past thirty-five years, wages for non-professional employees have been on a steady, if gradual, decline, while the number of hours one needs to work in order to make ends meet has increased significantly. At the same time, the elements of a secure life – health insurance, a pension, a reasonable chance at owning a home or putting a child through college – have become unattainable for a growing swathe of the country. We are witnessing the first generation of Americans that expects to do worse than their parents. If the country continues in the broad policy directions of neoliberal trade, privatization, de-unionization and deregulation, there is no possibility but that living standards for most Americans will continue to decline, as the country is slowly but inexorably competed down to the level of less wealthy trading partners. This broad reality provides the fundamental background framing contemporary politics. For the economic elite, the primary political challenge is how to manage the politics of decline – that is, how to advance an ever-more-radical neoliberal agenda without provoking a popular backlash.

In part, conservative business elites have encouraged a revolution of falling expectations. When people come to feel lucky just to have a job with health insurance (and then just a job even without health insurance, so long as they can pay the rent); when 25 or 35 kids in a class comes to seem fortunate because others are in classes of 50; when retaining fully funded Social Security and Medicare even without a pension from one’s job seems lucky – all these shifts serve to lower people’s expectations of the economy and their demands of employers. In this sense, the draconian cuts in public services may serve a long-term political strategy, quite apart from their material impact on taxes or government regulations. Most of the time, expectations decline gradually. But occasionally there are crises that legitimate a sudden redefinition of what is reasonable to expect from government or employers.

Even if some of these laws get repealed when Democrats next take over in the states, the long-term game for Republicans is to knock down working-class rights and the welfare state as much as possible. By lowering expectations of what is a respectable job, they maximize profits down the road. We’re coming to reinterpret a good health insurance plan, good wages, and decent working conditions at levels far lower than our unionized forebearers 30 years ago. That might be the real tragedy in all of this–the steady deterioration of our lives and the accumulating lack of hope that things will get better.

H/T to Corey Robin, who suggested the Lafer piece to me.