kiwiman127
Comfortably Moderate
- Oct 19, 2010
- 11,802
- 3,429
Capitalism worked great back in the days when when just about everybody benefited from hard work and great profits, the middle class was strong and our economy was stable. When we did have recessions, they lasted a lot shorter than they have the last 30 years.
As we all know, unemployment is one of the major tools to measure an economy. Please look at the depth and length of the recessions of 1990, 2001 and 2007. The recession of 1990 and 2001 weren't that deep but look how long the recovery took in comparison to previous recessions..
What changed? Those who reaped the rewards of good profits weren't the workers, even though their productivity was high which contributed to the profits. No, things changed in the early 80's. Instead of the working middle class being rewarded for their hard work, the stockholder started being rewarded mush more generously instead. Flat wages growth has help lead to a a stagnant economy because our consumer spending is weaker because of less expendable income, thanks to flat wage growth. Now consider the US economy is driven by consumer spending (almost 80%). Since the change over to who is rewarded in America's new capitalistic system, the middle class has shrunk, recessions take much longer to recover, inequality has expanded to numbers that rival the inequality prior to the Great Depression.
Capitalism was designed to reward just about everyone, not the select few.
