Trickle-Down Cruelty and the Politics of Austerity | Truthout

Trickle-Down Cruelty and the Politics of Austerity Truthout: "The working and middle classes have been condemned to a new form of neoliberal tyranny 'in which there can be only one kind of value, market value; one kind of success, profit; one kind of existence, commodities; and one kind of social relationship, markets.'(8) The global recession has intensified the war on the American public, as professionals and politicians who make up a global business class now displace democracy with the call for austerity and, in doing so, produce a hidden order of politics in which the 'demand for the people's austerity hides processes of the uneven distribution of risk and vulnerability.'(9) Under the guise of austerity, politically motivated attacks are now being waged on young people, low-skilled workers, the poor, African-Americans and the elderly. On the other hand, austerity measures against the rich are almost nonexistent."?