this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2025
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And to make that happen:
So, take that sequence, and for a brief moment a white, male worker in the US could support a family on a blue-collar salary in a way they hadn't ever done before that. Once other countries rebuilt their infrastructure, the US lost that edge. Once American businesses pushed for the roll-back of worker protections, blue-collar workers lost that benefit. Bit, by bit, the world returned to the way it has normally been, where the lowest class barely survives and both parents work hard, while the rich benefit.
And since then, productivity exploded. Machines and automation everywhere. We are in the age of overconsumption. And value is created at an always acceleratind pace.
But then things started to slow down. But wealth growth can't slow down! It has to grow, always, and always faster. So when "produce more" stopped working, they turned to "produce for cheap".
They started cutting spendings and benefits. But it wasn't enough. And they told western workers that they were no longer competitive. Yes, that plant they're shutting down was making money. But it would make MORE money in China and other third world countries.
And while plants were going away, salaries got stagnant. Wealth was growing again!
But then the growth slowed down again. So they bought governments to get huge subsidies they could funnel in their wealth growth again.
And now plants are "optimal". Wages are low. Govs hand out money. Why is it not working?
Because they impoverished so much the working class that there is no one left to buy the goods they produce.
The problem is obvious to anyone looking: money is needed for the economy to run. If it's all locked up by oligarchs, then it serves no purpose and the economy suffocates. And there is no remote way a handful of people can manage the world's economy. "Trickle down economy" has failed everywhere and everytime it was attempted. So they're terrified. Terrified of the working class, terrified of common good, terrified of common sense.
So to make sure they can keep hoarding whatever is left to get, they turned to fascists and propped them across the world, by controlling medias and flooding social networks.
And here we are: in the age of overproduction and mass poverty combined, with a class of scared oligarchs ready to take the world down with them as long as no one stops their wealth hoarding.
It's interesting watching how China has reacted to having the same problem. By helping build infrastructure in other nations they help create the economic conditions required for permanent job creation. More jobs leads to more pay, more pay leads to more purchasing power, and more purchasing power leads to more imports.
China is creating consumers rather than juicing them. Not that their ideas are innocent, but they are more coherent and beneficial.
You'd think that productivity would explode, but the productivity paradox says that it really has stalled out. It stalled in the 70s to the 80s, and then stalled again around 2000 and hasn't really grown since.
Wealth has continued to grow unchecked, but for some reason even though computers are getting more and more powerful, workers aren't getting more done. AI is only making this worse.
No paradox. The wealthy didn't want plenty; they wanted control.
Nice breakdown.
Don't leave out the part that after this American renaissance, where those returning soldiers became workers who reaped the rewards of that one in a million economic boon, their children started fabricating narratives about 'hard work' and 'grit' being the reason their inherited wealth was justified.
Then they shoved that narrative down the next three generations' throats while exclaiming "kids these days are lazy" and "I worked a summer job to pay for college, why can't you?". All the while pulling up every ladder that had been constructed to put them in that position.
True enough. The men who had great jobs in the 50s had frequently been soldiers in the 40s. They'd been raised in the 30s during the great depression. They'd been through hardships. It was their kids who grew up in relative luxury. I'm sure some of it was pulling the ladder up after themselves. But, in addition they hadn't had to fight to establish their union, it was just there when they joined the job. Because of that, they didn't know how important it was, and so they didn't know they should be fighting to keep it strong.
Yeah they just saw money coming out of their check for union dues and propaganda about how union reps were corrupt
And, to be fair, there was some corruption in unions. But, they could have rooted out that corruption and had a union that represented them. Instead they abandoned unions and embraced "rugged individualism".
There's corruption almost everywhere. The unions only survive because there's corruption in the companies, so the union corruption is usually a lesser evil.
For what good the market is, as long as unions aren't illegal, they should always balance out the corporate greed.
Sure, there's some corruption everywhere. But, for example, the teamsters union was massively infiltrated by organized crime. Unions are good, but like companies they need oversight.
What we need then is a union union, which negotiates with the union to make sure they do their job and keep fees nominal, and if they refuse, it holds their dues. Of course, we can't have that for free, so .... unions all the way down?
Or a government that oversees unions, just like they oversee clean water and safe medicine.
(shaky stare at the US government at the moment)
I'm not sure that's a good idea....
The US government already oversees unions through the NLRB, but currently isn't able to do anything because Trump has removed the chair and not appointed a replacement. I don't think a broken NLRB is any worse than no NLRB at all.
Fantastic post, well done, sir.
Yeah the position of privilege that America occupied globally for the last 75 years minus the last ten or twenty years is not something that's talked about enough in "they" took the American dream from us
And what that position of privilege cost the rest of the world. For example, Eisenhower was president from '53-'61, is often seen as a great president by Americans, and that decade is seen as a golden age by plenty of Americans (especially boomers).
Outside the US, Eisenhower had Lumumba assassinated in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The replacement they helped install, Mobutu, basically continued the brutal rule and many of the atrocities that had occured in the Congo Free State (death toll as high as 10 million), so that minerals could continue to be extracted. Ultimately this would lead to the first and second congo war and an additional 5 million deaths. Fun fact: a few years ago Tesla/Musk signed a large contract with a company which was formed from a merger of companies including the successor of Compagnie du Katanga. The latter was a concession company that operated in the Congo Free State and is responsible for plenty of the worst atrocities committed during that time. Just in case anyone here thinks colonialism was a long time ago. There's also stuff like the Guatamalan genocide which was a result of the CIA instigated coup of 1954, the 1953 Iranian coup which would ultimately result in Iran becoming an Islamic theocracy, and his signing a deal with Franco which arguably prolonged his rule.
So the take away from what you're saying is, we need to fast track WWIII, and sit out of it. Let the world nuke each other while we sit back and eat popcorn while we sell them even MORE bombs to blow each other up!
........oh my god. I was being dramatic, but that sounds exactly like Bidens plan with Ukraine. Sell them weapons, but not enough to end the war. Just prolong it. I am baffled that trump hasn't gone the opposite route and sold russia nukes. I was fully expecting that.
If there is a WWIII, the US will be at the center of it.
What's happening in Ukraine is most likely going to prevent a wider war. If Russia were to win easily, there's a good chance the lesson they'd learn from that is that nobody will stop them if they invade a weaker neighbour. Eventually that might lead to WWIII. The war being prolonged and limited to just one country is a way to drain Russia of fighting age men and war materiel without the war spreading. Even the war ending too quickly might mean Russia is able to regroup and launch another attack on a neighbour.
Biden's plan was one that was extremely unlikely to lead to a wider war. Besides, Biden was giving them weapons, not selling them. If anything it was a give-away to the defence companies on behalf of the US tax payers. But, maybe that's OK if it keeps US soldiers out of the war and prevents Americans from getting killed.
And what's wrong with letting Ukrainians use those weapons to end the war quickly be defeating russia?
Huh?
we'll try anything but another New Deal, eh?
Neat history that mostly erases billionaire actions.
You're really great at underhanded billionaire propaganda. How much do they pay you?
Are you Malcolm gladwell?
You need to touch some grass
at high velocity
Sorry, which bit in that erased the actions of capitalists?
What's not on there.
There's a lot missing. From the bad, I mean.