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There has not been any organized, explicitly class-based violence in the United States for generations, so what, exactly, does “class warfare” really mean? Is it just an empty political catch-phrase? [...] I recently argued that real class warfare is when those who have already achieved a good deal of prosperity pull the ladder up behind them by attacking the very things that once allowed working people to move up and join the ranks of the middle class.

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In the US, right-wing legislators continue their attack on labor unions. These politicians ignore one simple fact: unions were a major force in building and sustaining the great American middle class, and as they declined, so has the middle class. CAP’s Karla Waters and David Madland showed in a report first published in January 2011 that as union membership has steadily declined since 1967, so too has the middle class’s share of national income, as the super-rich have taken a larger share of national income than any time since the 1920s.

The European Central Bank is strongly hinting that it will raise interest rates at its next meeting, in response to rising headline inflation -- even though this rise is the result of rising food and oil prices, which are not the results of ECB policy. Suppose that we focus on wage rates, which are often seen as the stickiest, most inertia-driven prices. The eurozone, like the US, has seen wage growth slump in the face of high unemployment.

So what the ECB is saying, in effect, is that Europe should drive down nominal wages -- which can only be done by raising the unemployment rate -- in order to offset the effect of oil and food on headline inflation. (Real wages will fall in any case.) Is this really a policy that the ECB would defend in so many words? I doubt it. But however sober and dignified talk of price stability may sound, that is what the proposed policy amounts to.

I drove up [to Wise County]. It was 50 miles. And I got to the fairgrounds. The parking lot was jam-packed. It was a rainy day. I couldn't see any activity outside the fairground gates. Once I went inside, it was such a stark contrast to what was on the outside. People were lined up by the hundreds, standing or sitting in long lines, many of them without shelter, in the rain, getting soaking wet, waiting for hours to get care that was being provided in animal stalls, in many cases, and in barns and under tents that had been set up, like MASH units at a wartorn site. And it was just so startling for me to see that.

I realized, when I saw those folks, that many of them could have been people I grew up with. My relatives could have been there. And they were people who, I learned later, most of them have jobs. They just don’t have jobs that offer insurance benefits. And a lot of them do have insurance, but they’re in these new kinds of plans that insurance companies are pushing more of us into, that have such high deductibles or limited benefits that we can’t get the care we need, even if we’re sending our premium dollars in. When I saw that, it was almost as if I was supposed to be seeing something like that to jolt me out of the complacency that I had been in for all these many years.

A trip I took on a corporate jet just a couple of weeks after that experience, flying from Philadelphia, where CIGNA is based, to its healthcare operations in Connecticut. And we were served -- the CEO and I -- lunch on gold-rimmed china, and we were given gold-plated flatware to eat it with. And we were sitting in a very luxurious leather chair, flying in a corporate jet that cost $5,000 an hour to operate, or just the jet fuel alone was $5,000. And for the first time, I was paying attention to what I was doing. And I realized that the people in Wise County and elsewhere in this country were in the predicaments they were so that I could fly around in such luxury to get from one place to another.

California GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, billionaire, has two basic economic plans for California: lay off 40,000 state employees, which would increase the unemployment rate, and eliminate the capital gains tax, whis is paid largely by wealthy people, by the investor class. She has also attacked unions and public-sector employees in a way that is really profound and has become one of those California trends we are going to see spreading across the country. What she has basically said is: the problem with California is unionized public-sector workers and teachers. She actually came out and said that.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/14/california_governors_race_breaks_records_as

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Anger is sweeping America. True, this white-hot rage is a minority phenomenon, but the angry minority is angry indeed, consisting of people who feel that things to which they are entitled are being taken away. And they are out for revenge. I am talking about the rich.

If you want to find real political rage — the kind of rage that makes people compare President Obama to Hitler, or accuse him of treason — you will find it among the very privileged, people who are outraged, outraged, at the thought of paying modestly higher taxes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/opinion/20krugman.html

Tory MP Sir Nicholas Winterton insisted that MPs should be allowed to continue travelling first-class on trains because passengers in standard carriages are "a totally different type of people."

In an astonishing outburst, Sir Nicholas said that people travelling on cheaper standard tickets had "a different outlook on life" and were unlikely to be working or studying during their journey.

He said MPs deserved to be treated like businesspeople and senior public servants and should be allowed to claim for first-class travel between their constituencies and London so they can work.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1251822/Tory-MP-Sir-Nicholas-Winterton-blasts-new-economy-travel-rule.html

Sixty miles from Haiti's devastated earthquake zone, luxury liners dock at private beaches where passengers enjoy jetski rides, parasailing and rum cocktails delivered to their hammocks. A liner delivered relief supplies while passengers frolicked on zip-lines and ate barbeque within the 12-foot-high fence's perimeter.

The Independence of the Seas, owned by Royal Caribbean International, disembarked at the heavily guarded resort of Labadee on the north coast on 15 January 2010. The ship was built at the Finnish shipyard, Aker Finnyards. A second cruise ship, the Navigator of the Seas is due to dock at Labadee later.

Royal Caribbean International leases a picturesque wooded peninsula and its five pristine beaches from the government for passengers to "cut loose" with watersports, barbecues, and shopping for trinkets at a craft market before returning on board before dusk. Safety is guaranteed by armed guards at the gate.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/17/cruise-ships-haiti-earthquake