In his 2004 annual letter to his companys shareholders, investor Warren Buffett, one of the richest men on the planet, observed in a now-famous quote: If class warfare is being waged in America, my class is clearly winning.

Eight years later, Buffetts statement seems even more telling. Following the near collapse of the American economy in 2008 and its sluggish recovery, the gap in income and wealth between rich and poor is at record levels, the middle class remains stagnant, and the other 1 percent, as Occupy Wall Street has pointed out, continue to leave the other 99 percent in the dust.

Whenever people use the C-word (class), they are quickly accused of provoking social divisiveness in pursuit of political gain.

Indeed, the charge of class warfare has recurred repeatedly during the Republican presidential primary. During a debate in New Hampshire, Rick Santorum even criticized Mitt Romney for using the term middle class, declaring: Its one that I dont think we should be using as Republicans, middle class. There are no classes in America.

Romney, who amassed a fortune as the head of a private equity firm, has accused his critics of class envy, claiming that those who question his wealth and business practices are simply jealous of his success.

Some insights from an earlier time period may be helpful in evaluating Romneys claim.

In Making a New Deal, her prize-winning 1990 book on the Great Depression, historian Lizabeth Cohen suggested that although Depression-era workers were angry at Wall Street for crashing the U.S. economy and doubted the ability of capitalism to meet their needs, what they really were seeking was a moral capitalism.

According to Cohen, workers in the 1930s did not begrudge the wealthy their right to earn money and do well. However, they did insist that their own hard work be recognized and rewarded, that considerations of justice and fairness be applied to economic and political decision-making, and corporations no longer be allowed to play the game strictly by rules of their own making.

I believe that these sentiments are widely shared by most working people today. We take pride in our work and want our employers to do well; however, we are concerned when we do not receive our fair share of the wealth produced by our labor.

For those of us fortunate enough to have unions, we see our wages, health care and pensions being eroded at the bargaining table in a seemingly endless demand for concessions.

We see employers hire part-time and temporary workers, employ independent contractors, send jobs overseas, and contract out jobs from public to private employers in their zeal to cut costs.

We see the right of workers to form unions routinely violated by employers without penalty or consequence.

We see the public institutions we rely on for vital programs and services being starved for funding.

We see a system that taxes our incomes at much higher rates than those paid by people who earn their money from investment rather than wage labor.

We are upset that a torrent of corporate spending on lobbyists renders our voices virtually unheard in the halls of Congress.

And we are outraged that the reckless behavior of Wall Street bankers and mortgage lenders that tanked the economy has largely gone unpunished.

We can fully expect that whenever we raise these concerns, accusations of class warfare and class envy will be trotted out with renewed intensity.

Here is where the concept of moral capitalism articulated by workers in the 1930s is especially relevant. In spite of the class warfare and class envy accusations, the other 99 percent must keep asking political leaders of all parties if they believe in moral capitalism and demand that they tell us what they will do to restore it.

As workers realized during the Great Depression, without incorporating the values of justice, fairness, equality, dignity, respect and social responsibility into its way of doing business, capitalism will not be successful, democracy will suffer, and the American dream will become a distant memory.