Class warfare is a continual threat in republics

In an imaginary classless society, there is no class warfare. But in all real human societies, there are always people, rich or poor, who are either unhappy with the existing distribution of property or more than happy to exploit the unhappiness of others.

One major reason why the United States has lasted so long is that its large size and population, and an almost infinite variety of economic interests and classes, have discouraged class warfare. This was no accident but a deliberate constitutional design of the founding fathers. But politics presents a perpetual challenge.

The only way in which an economic class can rule in its own interest is to control the government. In a government restricted to a few, the rich are all powerful. In a government open to all, the most worrisome outcome is rule by a factious majority.

Neither of the major political parties is immune to the temptation to stigmatize a minority of the population to win an election. But the Democratic party has a long history of pandering to a majority that feels itself deprived of money, property or privilege.

Typically, the “enemies of the people” are successful business entrepreneurs, whose very success makes both their resources and their motives suspect. Following in the footsteps of their predecessors, Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama regularly pillory drug companies, oil companies, financial institutions, airline companies and indeed any enterprise with which a substantial portion of the voting population has a gripe.

Often the problems associated with corporate America are a result of its compliance with direct or indirect regulation by the government. Drug companies are under constant pressure from consumers to produce safe and effective drugs in a timely fashion, which the government hinders by onerous regulations that drive up the cost of the remedies.

Oil companies spend gigantic sums of money to extract oil in far-flung regions of the earth at a reasonable cost at the pump, but are burdened with taxes and restrictions that leave them little choice but to cover their current and future costs with rising prices.

Banks and lending corporations are required to provide low-cost housing loans to poor credit risks who subsequently stop payment or abandon their properties. And airline companies are suddenly being expected to exceed their exemplary safety record by submitting to expensive and time-consuming inspections which have forced the cancellation of thousands of flights and driven up the cost of flying.

These attacks on businesses are easy, because they are a minority in a republic that operates by majority rule. We have not succumbed to socialism or gone into bankruptcy for a variety of reasons, chief of which is the United States Constitution, which requires ruling majorities to pass legislation in two separate houses of Congress and to obtain presidential consent.

Still, enemies of corporations can make plenty of noise and cause unending difficulties, using the mass media as a national scold and congressional hearings as a forum for fulminating forensics. It is not enough to rely upon the checks and balances of the Constitution to discourage or restrain class warfare; one must also plumb to the depths of its genuine evil.

We live in a free country of great and varied economic opportunities. People of little income but of great ambition have become very rich, such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller long ago, and Bill Gates and Donald Trump today. Right now, someone who is employed by another is considering how to supply a good or service which thousands or even millions of people will purchase.

In other words, those who succeed in the business world were not necessarily born with a silver spoon in their mouths, and even if they were, the competitive pressures of the marketplace place a premium on judgment, skill and, yes, luck. Corporations that existed when I was a child are no longer dominant (Montgomery Ward) and enterprises unheard of then have sprung up (Microsoft).

It is certainly true that someone who has more money than I have is in a position to exploit his advantage. But when the market imposes discipline in effect by forbidding anyone from selling what no one wants, and morality imposes other restraints on human behavior, a lot less corruption goes on than would otherwise be the case.

When such corruption exists and innocent parties are deceived or abused, those responsible should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But dissatisfaction with one’s lot in life, and the related tendency to look for scapegoats, is never a justifiable basis for a prosecution, not to mention good public policy.

Demonizing our most successful fellow citizens as predators, parasites, blood suckers, robber barons, exploiters and the like does nothing to promote good business practices or our standard of living. Justice demands that those who enhance our lives be rewarded rather than penalized. Republican government does not require flattening everyone to the level of the least productive.

ABOUT THE WRITER
Richard Reeb taught political science, philosophy and journalism at Barstow College from 1970 to 2003. He is the author of “ Taking Journalism Seriously: ‘Objectivity’ as a Partisan Cause”  (University Press of America, 1999). He can be contacted at rhreeb@verizon.net.