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Reluctant Shareholders: Rhetoric, Privilege, and Economic

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Reluctant Shareholders: Rhetoric, Privilege, and Economic RELUCTANT SHAREHOLDERS: RHETORIC, PRIVILEGE, AND ECONOMIC CITIZENSHIP IN THE 21ST CENTURY by CHRISTOPHER BLAKE ABBOTT (Under the Direction of Roger Stahl) ABSTRACT The economic crisis that began in 2008 marked a rhetorical shift in the construction, expression and negotiation of economic citizenship in the United States. Economic citizenship, as a rhetorical construct, marks the ways in which a person understands and performs his or her membership in the economy. This project investigates ways in which that shift was rhetorically performed and marked during the economic crisis by examining national news media discourse at that time. It looks at this construction in three major sectors of the economy: finance, manufacturing, and housing. In the financial sector, this project looks at the rhetoric that reported on and justified government bailouts of financial institutions, coverage of the populist backlash against the same institutions, and assumptions in terms like “bailout” and “too big to fail.” In the manufacturing sector, this project compares and contrasts reporting on financial bailouts with that of government bailouts given to automobile manufacturers, rhetorical distinctions between wealthy and working class Americans in news media, and nostalgic laments for the loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States that received attention in the crisis. Finally, in the housing sector, this project examines the rhetorical construction of the concepts “home” and “ownership,” the relationship between those concepts and the housing crisis, news discourse of evictions and policy responses to the crisis, and the news media controversy surrounding the widespread practice of owner-occupiers strategically defaulting on their mortgages. This project argues that news media rhetoric in all three sectors describing, affixing blame for, and discussing responses to the economic crisis functioned hegemonically by focusing on anger and disappointment in local, individualized contexts. This discourse dispersed the crisis throughout the country and distracted citizens from a broader, systematic view of the crisis. It also overshadowed attempts to connect the crisis to the very function of the capitalist system by constructing new modes of economic citizenship—such as the reluctant shareholder—and promoting old ones—such as investor citizenship—to justify policy responses to the crisis that secured the hegemony of neoliberal capitalism as the country emerges from the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. INDEX WORDS: Rhetoric, Citizenship, Economic Citizenship, Investment, Reluctant Shareholder, Finance, Manufacturing, Housing, Bailout, Too Big To Fail, News Media, Crisis, Neoliberalism, Hegemony, Populism, Home, Ownership, Ownership Society, Mortgage, Wall Street, Main Street, AIG, GM, Strategic Default, Walking Away RELUCTANT SHAREHOLDERS: RHETORIC, PRIVILEGE, AND ECONOMIC CITIZENSHIP IN THE 21ST CENTURY by CHRISTOPHER BLAKE ABBOTT BA, Mercer University, 2002 MA, Wake Forest University, 2006 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2010 © 2010 Christopher Blake Abbott All Rights Reserved RELUCTANT SHAREHOLDERS: RHETORIC, PRIVILEGE, AND ECONOMIC CITIZENSHIP IN THE 21ST CENTURY by CHRISTOPHER BLAKE ABBOTT Major Professor: Roger Stahl Committee: Ed Panetta Barbara Biesecker Kelly Happe Elizabeth St. Pierre Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2010 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Such a huge undertaking is, of course, never an individual endeavor. I would be remiss if I failed to mention at least some of the people without whom this task would be inconceivable. First and foremost, I want to thank my dearest love, Erin Witte. Not only has she always been incredibly loving and supportive of me but she has gone to great lengths to help ease my burden during this process. Because of her, I am never alone. I also want to thank my parents, who trained me to grow into the strong adult I would like to think I’ve become. I also want to thank all the members of my family for cheering me on from afar. I have a number of people at UGA that I simply must thank. Roger Stahl has been a wonderful advisor and a good friend. He was both quick with solid advice, profuse in his praise, and equally expressive in his constructive criticism. I can advance to the next stage in my career thanks to the solid footing he has provided. Ed Panetta has been my boss, mentor, and friend during my time at UGA. He has tirelessly shared his time and wisdom with me, and I appreciate every minute he so generously bestowed upon me. I matured significantly under his guidance. Barb Biesecker has been an amazing teacher to me in the two years I got to know her here at UGA. I cannot adequately express how much I have learned from her, either in classroom discussions or in individual meetings. I would like to thank Kelly Happe for her tireless work and contributions as a member of my committee. I also want to thank every other UGA professor with whom I had the privilege of taking a class: Vanessa Beasley, John Murphy, Christine Harold, Kevin DeLuca, Celeste Condit, Elizabeth St. Pierre, Tina Harris, Tom Lessl, and Darrel Enck-Wanzer. Each of these people made my time at UGA challenging and exciting, and I am a v better scholar for getting to spend time with them. Other members of the SPCM department with whom I did not take a class also enriched my experience in grad school at UGA, and I would like to thank them as well. Additionally, I want to thank the members of the “SLC” writing group at UGA for their insight and friendship over these past four years. They have made the process of intellectual growth more fun than it should be. Finally, I would like to thank my colleagues, fellow graduate students in the SPCM department at UGA. Each one of them—whether I shared a class with them or not—contributed to the best intellectual culture I could ask for while I was here. I have made strong friendships that will last for years, and I can honestly say that their hard work inspired me to work harder. There are a few people who were highly supportive of and influential to me when I was at Wake Forest that must be included in this space. My MA advisor Eric King Watts was a great guide and continues to be a good friend even after all this time. Allen Louden has been one of my favorite people from Wake, not only because of his cheerful demeanor but also because of his unyielding generosity toward me both during my time in Winston-Salem and now. We have shared laughter and tears together half a world away, and I will always cherish his genuine kindness. Finally, I have to thank my former boss at Wake, the late Ross Smith. His tireless dedication not only to debate but also to the constant struggle to become a better person gave me the will and determination to work hard to improve myself and my craft. I still cannot believe that his time on this earth has ended, but his spirit will always live on in me and many others. To anyone who I may have left out but played a part in this project, no matter how small, please accept both my apologies and my gratitude. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: HISTORICAL AND THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ECONOMIC CITIZENSHIP ...........................................................................................................1 Rhetorics/Economics ..............................................................................................5 Economic Citizenship ...........................................................................................11 Populism ...............................................................................................................16 Power/Privilege .....................................................................................................22 Economic Citizenship in Times of Crisis .............................................................24 Case Studies ..........................................................................................................31 Methodology .........................................................................................................35 2 FINANCE ...................................................................................................................41 Introduction ...........................................................................................................41 Enter the Bailouts ..................................................................................................44 The Bonus Backlash .............................................................................................56 Individualizing the Crisis ......................................................................................65 Too Big to Bail Out...............................................................................................77 Conclusion ............................................................................................................87 3 MANUFACTURING .................................................................................................91 vii Auto Bailouts ........................................................................................................92 The Reluctant Shareholder and
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