Missing Costs and Class Belonging

“The focus on inflation and the economy seems to be driving a reluctance to talk about emissions reductions,” he said, adding “They’re missing the costs of climate impacts.” A study published in Nature earlier this year estimated that climate change-fueled weather disasters will cost the global economy $38 trillion per year by 2049. Those who might read this blog understand the issue with unacknowledged, unaccounted for externalities. I have stressed the point that cost has nothing to do with price. But the problem extends to the arena of language itself. If there is hegemonic understanding around the meaning of a word like "cost" ( ie. the price of a good or sevice) and it purposefully leaves out much of the actual meaning (ALL the impacts) , you now have cognitive dissonance. An empty signifier designed to confuse. And an ambiguity that negates discourse as such. Which reinforces the power structure in a most subtle, I would even say elegant fashion. Without language there is no resistance. It's all gobbledygoop and people talking past one another. Mission accomplished! Here is a quote from Jacobin magazine on the definition of working class: "Using the college degree metric, the working class is less white and female than the rest of the population." College degree metric? Even the self-described "left" has pathologized language and doomed its own project. Why not describe hair styles of the working class? Or preferred vegetables? It does the same work.