I am, not surprised; but, somewhat dismayed with ...

[AgingAmerican]

235. You are absolutely correct

Economic and civil rights are intrinsically tied together. Money = power. Without economic justice, the oligarchy holds all the power, and the only way the oligarchy can hold onto that power is to quash civil rights. Without economic justice, there can be no social justice.

We are now seeing this very thing happen before our eyes. As money is redistributed from the poor and middle class to the wealthy, civil rights are being systematically eroded. The civil rights act is under heavy attack as is the voting rights act. Eroding those acts is the only way the rich can hold onto power. We have watched this happen for a century in third world countries. Those countries are run by the oligarchy, and they have almost no civil rights.

We are seeing this with NAFTA and the TPP. As manufacturing jobs go overseas, inner city residents have fewer and fewer jobs and wages plummet. As wages plummet, the oligarchy gets richer and more powerful. As the oligarchy gains power, they attack civil rights as a means of holding onto that power.

This is the dilemma of those who tout right wing economic policies, while pushing for civil rights (aka the 'Third Way®'). Their economics guarantee the erosion of civil rights because the economics they espouse empower the oligarchy. As the oligarchy gains more economic power, civil rights must be quashed in order for them to stay in power.

Hence lies the cognitive dissonance of those who buy into such Libertarian thinking. They are trapped in a catch 22.

Another good example: In the 1950s the top marginal rate was raised to 90%. Rather than take their money out as highly taxable profits, businesses reinvested that money into their companies which made the businesses grow, thus creating jobs. They would later take their money out in the form of equity, which was taxed at a much lower rate. The rich became much richer, but in a way that spread the money around to the middle class, and in a way that empowered the middle class politically. Paralleling this, were the civil rights gains which began in the 50s and culminated in the early 1960s with the civil rights and voting rights acts.

When we hold the power, wages rise and civil rights are addressed. When they hold the power, wages and rights plummet.

It is all tied together, you cannot separate them.