Re:The U.S. government’s failed 1890s attempt to forge unity...
by kube-system on Friday June 11, 2021 @03:33PM
(#27477500)
> 3. Computers really start taking over (obviously accelerates in the 80s)
> This is akin to making the `pie` that is the economy greater. It does does not explain why the wealthy gained most of the new growth of said `pie`.
Sure it does. The productivity gains from any tool are a direct monetary benefit to those who implement it. The pie is only subsequently redistributed if other market effects coerce the original beneficiary into doing so.
Record-keepers, secretaries, etc, being laid off from their job obviously have no opportunity to negotiate for higher wages as a result of that productivity gain. The only people who were in a position to negotiate were the ones who could implement these new tools. And they did: tech jobs are well paid.
Inflation benefits those that can leverage dollar denominated debts against inflationary hedges. Wealthy people with assets undoubtably can do this at a grand scale while the closest thing an average person can do is buy a house.
2. Outsourcing of manufacturing begins in earnest (combined with weakening of unions, the Clean Air and Water Acts, etc)
Yes, and maybe slower globalization would have been better, but I personally am a free market all the way guy.
3. Computers really start taking over (obviously accelerates in the 80s)
This is akin to making the `pie` that is the economy greater. It does does not explain why the wealthy gained most of the new growth of said `pie`.
4. Women started having real careers on a large scale
I'm a bit torn on this as an argument. Women having careers should have increased the size of the economic `pie` and everyone should have been better off, but what seems to have happened is that competition between laborers became more intense and while the `pie` grew, the average person lost a significant portion of their share.
I have yet to fully wrap my head around this one, but it seems like labor competition combined with corporate and or governmental control in a way that prevented the distribution of the increased productivity?