Or Perhaps...: The real elites are Margaret Wente's BFFs

2010-11-08

The real elites are Margaret Wente's BFFs

SOURCE: http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/class_domination.html

To the Editor of The Globe and Mail:

Re: "Do you belong to the Elites? Take this test and see!", Nov. 6/10

[http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/do-you-belong-to-the-elites-take-this-test-and-see/article1787865/]

Margaret Wente wants us to believe that the population is divided into just two groups: working-class folks and cosmopolitan middle-classers. According to her, the latter are "Elites."

I am from a rural working-class background and, owing to hard work and a debt-financed education, I now live a comfortable urban existence. I like intellectual debate, the arts, and good food and coffee. I worry about growing inequality and I care about human rights.

But none of that makes me elite. Individually, I have virtually no influence over government decision-making and, like 99% of the population, I will probably never experience life like Canada's $22 billion Thomsons, $7 billion Irvings, $6 billion Westons, $5 billion Pattisons, or $5 billion Rogers. I do not always see eye-to-eye with my friends and family in the countryside and suburbs, but we're ultimately the same. We work hard for a living. Our wages and benefits are constantly falling behind the cost of living. We worry about retiring in dignity.

We also know what Wente's up to. There's no greater champion for the real elites -- meaning the corporate economic elites and their friends and family members in politics and the media -- than her. So, what better way to support her elite friends than to promote divisions among regular working people? If we turn against each other instead of the real elites, then we'll fail to ask the most important question: Why are we all getting poorer while they're getting incredibly richer?

Rick Telfer

(Sent November 6, 2010)

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