The Ridiculous Emergence of the “Managerial Class”
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The left gains power for attacking the wealthy and Republicans want to join in on the fun. Here’s why we shouldn’t let them.
The United States is currently in the heights of a backlash against its wealthiest residents. Nearly every buzzworthy movie, from The Menu to Glass Onion, is a direct assault on the privilege and callousness of extreme wealth. The richest man in the world, Elon Musk, is entering another year of constant criticism for his mismanagement of social networking giant Twitter. Popular discourse focuses on the misdeeds of the wealthy as well as various programs designed to reduce inequality or generally blunt the impact of the rich on society.
Most of these attacks have come from the left. But the right has recently tried to join in on the excitement. Their idea for critiquing the rich has to do with attacks on the “managerial class,” also known as the professional managerial class (PMC). These attacks may be successful in winning some populist adulates. But in many ways, they will ultimately fail to show any sincere movement from the Republican Party on economic issues.
According to conservatives, the PMC should be the true target of public ire. They are the class that runs social media companies, universities, liberal think tanks, and government agencies. They have the nation’s wealth and spend their time trying to figure out new ways of forcing “wokeness” on the people. Conservatives paint many liberal opponents such as Jeff Bezos as PMC leaders, mainly highlighting their donations to the Democratic Party and activist causes. Through this tool, Republicans have tried to join the culture war with the class war.
The problem with this attack on the PMC is that it betrays continued Republican attachment to the wealthy. Republicans point to occasional broadsides against Disney and Amazon as evidence for their newfound critiques of the wealthy. But the vast majority of companies still give generously to the Republican Party mainly because it continues to be the party of corporate wealth.
Republicans continue to embrace laissez-faire attitudes towards regulations and low taxes for companies and the wealthy. The Republican plan to embrace a national sales tax instead of an income tax would vastly reduce the amount of money…
