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Christie's class warfare

by: Adam L

Tue Feb 16, 2010 at 12:00:00 PM EST

It is obvious to anyone who has paid the slightest bit of attention that Governor Christie has come out of the gate swinging. What may be a bit less obvious is that he is swinging right for the heads and hearts of the middle class - while keeping the fat cats who need help the least nice and happy.

Make no mistake - Christie ran on a promise (part explicit and part implicit) to exploit the class and income disparity, and now New Jerseyans who thought that he would being "change" to the Governor's office and were all too eager to get rid of Governor Corzine will see it clearly, hear it loudly and taste it with a solid kick in the teeth.

Let's look at a few examples in the short time Christie has been in office:

In the middle of making drastic cuts to many programs which target the middle class and while complaining about the "massive budget deficit" (a number that is fully unsupported by the facts and reality), he has let the surtax on those earning over $400,000 expire - a move that will cost the state $300 million annually.

He is aggressively courting mega-corporations like Wal-Mart, promising big tax breaks if they come to or expand in New Jersey. Never mind that Wal-Mart has horrific employment practices, pays its employees incredibly low wages with little benefits - Wal-Mart is the epitome of anti-business. Time after time, Wal-Mart has pushed small businesses and entrepreneurs out of business, decimated local employment and Main Street in a goal to "crush all competition". This leads to lower wages, less consumer choice and desolate town economies - and not necessarily even a net gain in employment.

He has gone straight for the teachers' union - regardless of the merits of certain individual arguments or policies - corporatizing and privatizing education lowers the quality of our public education system, demonizing teachers will lower the morale and number of quality educators - things that will no doubt hurt the state overall and into the future as lower levels of education won't lead to better opportunities for better jobs.

And he has gone after those who need to take public transportation with higher fees and service cuts to NJ Transit - nothing more than an additional tax on those who have to rely on public transportation to get to work.

If he keeps this up - there won't be much of an income disparity anymore as everyone other than the upper upper class will be taxed right out of the state.

Adam L :: Christie's class warfare

Tags: Chris Christie, class warfare, middle class, Economy, featured, (All Tags)

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Christie's class warfare | 9 comments

Did you ever notice that very few of the employees in Wal-Mart .. (0.00 / 0)

seem happy to be there. I have walked through the Wal-mart in Clinton and the relatively new Wal-Mart in Flemington and constantly notice that very few employees ever seem to be smiling. They just do not seem happy to be there. With the crappy quality of most of what Wal-Mart sells, I'm not sure that many local merchants have a whole lot to fear, but on the whole, encouraging these mega-stores at the expense of local stores would not seem to be a good idea to keep the small business Republicans happy which I would assume voted for Christie.

by: FormerBureaucrat @ Tue Feb 16, 2010 at 19:20:59 PM UTC

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good point (4.00 / 1)

that I did not fail to mention in my article. I worked at a big box store (not WM) for years and I rarely worked with someone who was happy to be at work.

More often than not, management forced us to smile when they walked by--- it was all fake though

http://outspokenliberal.blogsp...

by: tabbycat31 @ Tue Feb 16, 2010 at 21:29:45 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Already at war (4.00 / 1)

There's been a war on the middle class for decades now as administrations and legislatures fall over each other to buy Union Votes with fat contracts. The middle class is who has to worker longer hours for less to pay those contracts and pensions. And we're about to tax them a whole lot more to continue paying people decades after they stopped working.

Well done.

by: HobokenSchmo @ Tue Feb 16, 2010 at 23:55:39 PM UTC

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Union families are the middle class. (0.00 / 0)

I love all the characters who think that there is something wrong with people bargaining to get fair pay, good health care, and pension benefits.

by: Matthew Jordan @ Wed Feb 17, 2010 at 19:56:33 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Why pick on Wal-Mart? (0.00 / 0)

Why not Target, BJ's, Costco, KMart, Home Depot, Lowes, Staples, Kohls, PetSmart, Best-Buy, etc.

I live in southern ocean county and most of the above stores have opened in recent years. If Wal-Mart put anybody out of business it would be other discount chains like Caldor, Bradlees, etc.

I know several hardware stores that closed when Home Depot opened. But I've gotten better service at lower prices, and I have a clear conscience about it.

And lets not forget the supermarket chains like Pathmark and Shop-Rite, and all the specialty stores they chased out of business. One interesting story I can't resist. A local bakery I used to patronize went out of business when a supermarket opened nearby. When I went to the bakery department I saw the former owner of the bakery that closed managing the new bakery. When I asked him about it he grinned and said that he was making less money, but was content because it was less aggravation and he could spend more time with his family.

And let's not forget all the mom and pop businesses, especially those in minority communities which were owned by nonminority suburbanites, which cheated their customers, exploited their workers, and didn't even pay taxes.

It would be interesting to poll minority residents in urban neighborhoods to see if they would prefer a Wal-Mart in their community or the nonminority, out-of-town, mom and pop merchants who have been ripping them oiff for years.

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by: ken bank @ Wed Feb 17, 2010 at 04:26:44 AM UTC

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Why? (4.00 / 1)

Because, unlike Costco, they treat their workers like shit. And none of the others you mention are on the scale of Wal-Mart.

by: 12mileseastofTrenton @ Wed Feb 17, 2010 at 13:35:26 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

One reason (4.00 / 1)

is that Wal-Mart, in particular, as a business model, uses part-time employees so it doesn't have to provide health benefits. Pathmark, in particular, is unionized. Wal-mart has been known to close stores because workers voted to unionize. I've also personally seen Walmart bleed all of the money out of a town, then shut down and leave it to die. When the German Supreme Court ruled that Wal-Mart could not sell products at a loss to drive competitors out of the market, they shut down all of their stores in Germany. Wal-Mart has also had numerous legal issues with forcing people to work off-the-clock, locking employees inside the store, and numerous child labor violations.

by: Thurman Hart @ Sun Feb 21, 2010 at 15:17:58 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Wal-Mart is the nation's #1 employer (4.00 / 1)

I think that's why they get so much attention in the media. I used to work for another store that you mentioned, and they don't have the impact on the community (trust me, I opened this store and my dad works for the community in question --this was before i moved to nj-- so I know the impact).

Most of those other stores on the list are more specialized than Walmart is. For example Staples carries electronics and office supplies, PetSmart is pet supplies, Best Buy is electronics, Kohl's is a department store, Home Depot/Lowes are home improvement, etc. Every one of the categories that the other stores specialize in you can get at Walmart (more often than not the specialty big box store will have a bigger selection of that particular item though)

Walmart is also not known for being flexible with their employees. I worked my way though college at the store I used to work for. Every semester my hours had to change to fit around my class schedule. I worked with several college students there who were in the same boat as me and the store accommodated us. Several people I've talked to that work or worked at WM have said (both online and in person) that they do not offer the flexibility in hours that most other stores do. This lack of flexibility makes it very hard if not impossible for an employee to attend school or to get a 2nd job to supplement their income.

I suggest reading up on Walmart by getting the DVD "Walmart: The high cost of low prices (available in the library in Monmouth County-- I can't speak for elsewhere) and browsing the website Wake Up Walmart (www.wakeupwalmart.com). There are also quite a few books that have been written about the subject-- I've read a few over the years but the titles all escape my mind right now--- I am sure they're easily found through a quick Amazon search. If you want to read what retail employees of all types of stores (from your Mom and Pop to WM) browse the forums at Customers Suck (it's a venting place for retail employees--- www.customerssuck.com).

http://outspokenliberal.blogsp...

by: tabbycat31 @ Wed Feb 17, 2010 at 04:49:15 AM UTC

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Excellent diary (4.00 / 1)

by: 12mileseastofTrenton @ Wed Feb 17, 2010 at 13:34:21 PM UTC

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Christie's class warfare | 9 comments