#160 401-OK

It was with a surprise of revelation that I looked at my 401(k) statement the other day―I was concerned directly about the stock market. Did I have enough energy stocks to reap some retirement profit from the recent price gouging? Did I have investments in the construction industry, and did they have contacts with the feds so they might get some of the carpet-bagging deals coming down the pike after Hurricane Katrina? Did I have enough diversification in my portfolio to include investment in the pharmaceutical industry, and did that include any companies that were working on a vaccine or treatment for the avian swine flu?
In short: Was I invested in the sour things that are happening now, in a craven and profitable enough way that my retirement later would be a little sweeter? Would I profit from other’s misfortune? And more importantly, would I profit from my own?
You see, as I pointed out before, where Karl Marx went wrong was not attributing to capitalism the ability to change. When capitalism—albeit unwillingly at the hands of the early unions— capitulated to the needs of workers and started paying them a decent wage, it discovered that it had also created a whole new class of consumers. And voila, capitalism thrived. It was Consumerism saved Capitalism from Communism. Which is why the mystical Consumer Confidence Index is one of the most paid-attention-to indices on Wall Street.
But the really elegant co-option and revolution-neutering of the working class by the Capitalist elite is the 401(k). Now, not only do workers have a better paycheck to spend their money, and have an interest in the performance of the company they work for, they have a direct vested interest in the performance of Wall Street as well. The young un-retired side of their brains gets upset about the oil companies reaming them with high pump prices. The other soon-to-be-retired side of their brain runs to their portfolio to see if they have any energy stocks. Talk about conflicted.
Gone are the days of rallying to the barricades, making common cause with the poor, joining together to lift everybody up and tearing down the corrupt and exploiting bourgeois money temples. Now, like me, much of the working class is working for a golden retirement, and has a little room in the money temple all its own.
What is it they say about chains of gold?
America ya gotta love it.