> “The left,” Tabellini concludes, “has underestimated the fact that culture can matter more than income. But as long as it insists on talking only about inequality, without addressing the identity theme, it will continue to lose out among its own former constituency.”
In my experiences, the Left / Democrats have abandoned the wage workers and labor quite along time ago. The justification was that Republicans catered to Big Business, along with their near-endless coffers of money. Democrats had to cater to their own groups that had money, and labor was NOT one of them.
Another money issue is that, in general, democrats tax the 50%-99% heavier to redistribute to the 0%-50% class. Republicans undo that. Yet nobody touches that 1% at the top, so real effective changes are really never seen, and haven't been seen since FDR.
Basically, I think culture has taken over income as a major political point because both politician groups have been able to phase it out by intentionally refusing to address it. Something else took hold, and that's identity politics.
If people saw massive, rapid change from taxing the 1% and real monetary gains quickly, identity would be shoved by the wayside quite fast.