Turning Over An Old Leaf

The old adage is right: There really is nothing new under the sun. Survivor is now in its sixth incarnation; John Paul II has died but Benedict XVI was one of his right-hand men; The Amityville Horror was just released to be followed by remakes of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Batman, Superman and yet another XXX movie, though this time without Vin Diesel. And, of course, there’s social security.

The “new” Bush Social Security plan is really the same old thing, rewrapped as a brand new initiative. The wealthiest are still taking the smallest hit while the rapidly shrinking middle class take the biggest. The administration is selling the plan as something new and innovative – an attempt at proving not only are they concerned about your future, but also that they aren’t beholden to the wealthy. The President was adamant that this plan would take money away from the rich and give it to the poor.

Let’s be clear on something: despite the administration’s proclamations, this is not Robin Hooding. There is no Noblesse Oblige in this plan. There is, however, an element of class warfare in the oldest definition of the phrase. President Bush maintains that the poorest Americans won’t be affected by his new plan and that it will allow them to maintain their current schedule of payments. He’s completely right. What he doesn’t say is that the same doesn’t hold true across the rest of us. And I’m actually not talking about the rich. The burden of the plan will be staunchly held by the middle class.

The New York Times’ Paul Krugman points out that cutting the benefits of the middle classes creates a serious economic concern. For many people stuck in the middle class, they will need their social security checks in order to keep their homes once they retire. By contrast, cut the benefits of Dick Cheney and “only his accountants will notice” because Dick Cheney obviously does not rely on Social Security as his safety net once his job ends in 2008. This is to say nothing of the notion that I’m sure he will find some way of procuring a regular paycheck even after his tenure of Vice President is over. Weep not, dear friends, for Mr. Cheney.

When Rome began to fall in third and fourth centuries, one of the precursors to the disintegration was the failure of the middle class. For almost 1000 years, Rome had functioned with a class system similar to the one America has enjoyed throughout much of the 20^th Century. Towards the end, the middle class was essentially obliterated. Everyone was either wealthy or poor, with very little in-between. With no middle class, the majority of the people sank into poverty instead of soaring out of it.

The benefit of this plan is that the wealthy were über-wealthy. Of course, they were also über-small in number which is exactly what you don’t want to be when the hungry serfs come a-callin’ with their pitchforks. But, truth to be told, Rome didn’t fall by way of a violent uprising. Nero may have fiddled dramatically at the end, but like General Macarthur, this old empire didn’t die – it just faded away.

The consequences of the unintentional removal of the middle class were obviously dire, but they certainly weren’t intentional. No one wanted the destruction of the middle class and certainly no one wanted an unstable union that couldn’t hold when its size and weight become too cumbersome. What’s the good in being supremely wealthy and privileged if you don’t have a couple of good servants to fetch things for you?

I won’t belabor the obvious parallels between Rome and our post-modern America in this scenario. Well, at least not overly so. I will say that any plan that, whether intentionally or otherwise, contributes to the destruction of the middle class is not a good thing. Holding power is like trying to keep mercury in your hands. Not only is it poisonous, but the bloody stuff is slippery, messy and has a tendency to nip out just when you needed it the most.

Great nations don’t always end in violent conquest. They oftentimes fall victim to their own bad judgment. The Greeks called it “hubris”. You’ll remember we covered that back in Freshman English. The country cannot let the center fall apart. Otherwise, the fall of America may come a lot like T.S. Elliot predicted – not with a bang but a whimper.