The War We Pretend Isn’t Happening
They’ve been at war with us for nearly a century—and we still refuse to call it what it is.
The billionaire class has waged an unrelenting campaign to concentrate power, dismantle worker protections, and reshape the economy in their image. And they’ve been devastatingly effective.
Since the New Deal, their goal has been simple: prevent any system that empowers the many over the few. With the rise of Reaganomics in the 1980s, they went from quiet influence to open conquest. Unions were broken. Public institutions were gutted. The promise of shared prosperity was replaced with the gospel of individualism and trickle-down lies.
And while we were working, commuting, struggling, and surviving—they were organizing. They built think tanks, media empires, lobbying machines, and digital platforms. They bought politicians and reshaped policy. They turned the tools of communication into surveillance systems and the tools of labor into chains of convenience.
Meanwhile, the working class was left with no real party, no organizing base, and no unified vision.
We didn’t lose the war because we were wrong.
We lost because we stopped building.
But the war isn’t over.
It’s time to stop waiting for permission—and start creating what comes next.
History of Class Warfare in America
FDR’s New Deal was a forced compromise—not a gift. It came at a moment when the working class had enough organizing power to threaten the entire system. The threat of strikes, marches, and full-scale revolt pushed the elite to concede just enough to preserve their dominance.
The post-WWII boom and the power of organized labor led to the rise of a strong, stable middle class. Union membership surged, wages rose in step with productivity, and for a few brief decades, prosperity was more evenly shared. This was not a coincidence. It was the result of hard-fought labor victories.
But the wealthy never accepted the deal. From the moment it was signed, they began plotting its reversal. Behind closed doors, they seeded efforts to roll back regulations, diminish the social safety net, and restore corporate supremacy.
The Powell Memo (1971) outlined a roadmap for corporate dominance. It called on business leaders to take control of media, education, politics, and the courts. The playbook was followed to the letter—and it worked.
Reagan was the Trojan horse. Under his administration, union power was obliterated, taxes on the wealthy were slashed, and the myth of the welfare queen replaced the reality of corporate welfare. Trickle-down economics became the state religion, and the war on the working class went into overdrive.
How They Won Without You Noticing
Union busting became a strategy, not a scandal. From the firing of air traffic controllers to the crushing of organizing efforts at Amazon and Starbucks, corporate America made it clear: solidarity would be punished.
Media consolidation put every major network in the hands of a few corporations, turning journalism into entertainment and dissent into noise. News became infotainment, and critical thinking gave way to sound bites and outrage cycles.
The destruction of public education created a citizenry more primed for obedience than critical thinking. Underfunded schools, overworked teachers, and an emphasis on standardized testing hollowed out our educational institutions.
The rise of neoliberalism reframed every social failure as a personal one. Can’t pay rent? You should’ve worked harder. Sick? You should’ve made better choices. This narrative allowed elites to deflect blame while dismantling the social contract.
The gig economy, at-will employment, and the hustle myth erased job security and normalized precarity. Flexibility became a euphemism for exploitation, and workers were left without benefits, protections, or stability.
Illusion of Choice & the Reality of Control
We pretend there are two political parties. In truth, there is one ruling class with two brands. Both are funded by the same donors, beholden to the same interests, and complicit in maintaining the status quo.
Billionaire-funded think tanks and lobbyists write the laws, then funnel money to the campaigns that pass them. The machinery of democracy has been quietly repurposed into a vehicle for elite rule.
The culture wars are used as distractions—a way to keep the working class fighting each other while the rich keep winning. Rage is monetized, and division is weaponized, all to keep us too distracted to see the real enemy.
You’re not free if you spend your life chasing debt and permission. That’s not democracy. That’s economic feudalism. Real freedom means agency, security, and the ability to shape your future—not just survive it.
Protest Alone Won’t Save Us
Protests are powerful symbols, but symbols don’t build systems. They can inspire, provoke, and raise awareness—but they rarely change the structures that govern our lives.
Without infrastructure, outrage dissipates. The news cycle moves on. The policies stay. The people in power know how to wait us out.
The wealthy know this. That’s why they invest in structures: institutions, networks, supply chains, and digital ecosystems. They build with permanence in mind.
To win, we need our own. We need resilient, responsive, and community-owned infrastructure that can’t be co-opted or shut down at will.
Building Our Own Systems
We must shift from reaction to creation. Rage alone won’t save us. We need alternatives that actually work.
Worker-owned platforms, mutual aid networks, and open-source cooperatives can outlast and outmaneuver bloated corporate empires. These are the seeds of a new economy.
Automation must serve labor, not capital. It should free us, not replace us. The productivity gains of the future must be shared, not hoarded.
AI should be built for the many, not owned by the few. If AI becomes just another tool of extraction, we will have lost the most powerful technological leap in human history to the same forces that broke everything else.
We don’t need more promises from politicians. We need infrastructure that serves us, regardless of who is in office. Power must shift from campaign trails to community tools.
Builders, Not Bosses
The new working class is digital, decentralized, and disillusioned. We know the old systems are broken. We just haven’t agreed on what comes next.
We don’t need new CEOs. We need new ecosystems. Power doesn’t have to come from the top. It can emerge from the collective.
HarteLife is one such blueprint: a platform for people to create, collaborate, and reclaim power from outdated institutions. It’s not about replacing old bosses with new ones. It’s about rewriting the rules.
The future of power lies in the hands of those who build it—together. The ones who can organize talent, distribute ownership, and align technology with human dignity.
The War Isn’t Over—It’s Just Been Quiet
This war won’t be won with better slogans. It’ll be won with better systems. Systems that empower instead of exploit. Systems that heal instead of extract.
It’s time to reject the lie that we are powerless. We are not outnumbered. We are out-organized. But that can change—starting now.
The billionaires are building every day. So must we.
Let’s stop waiting for justice to trickle down.
Let’s build it from the ground up.