US income inequality continues to grow

[*michaelsean*]

(07-24-2018, 01:06 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: Here are some facts. During the '50s and '60s, you could find a job that would support you with only a high school diploma. You could be able to afford food, shelter, transportation, medical costs, and would have a pension for retirement. You could afford to pay for a post-secondary education without too much of a struggle, as well, to give you more upward mobility. Unsurprisingly, at this time our Gini coefficient was at one of the lower points in history.

Things have changed. Our Gini coefficient is now higher than experts estimate it to have been in 1774, counting slaves. We saw a situation like this following Reconstruction. It came on the heels of the Industrial Revolution and the corporations that emerged from it. They gained tremendous power and wealth and created greater economic inequality through the policies they advocated for. The Progressives tried to put a halt to it, or at least slow it down, but they proved to be largely ineffective. Then came the Great Depression and the New Deal. Policies enacted, as well as the amount of money spent during WWII, took wealth and power away from the wealthy and the corporations. It reduced income inequality in the country and produced an economic period many people think of fondly. There were problems with the policies when it comes to race and gender, but they made an effort to correct the errors of the past.

Then along came the political shifts in the '70s. Both parties, now becoming more partisan and ideological, start to abandon the ways of the past couple of decades. They embraced neo-conservatism and neo-liberalism, turning towards a more free-market mindset which equals free-trade policies and reduced oversight of the market by the government. This allowed for corporations and the wealthy to regain their power over the years, which creates a cycle of them pushing for policies that only increase their power and wealth. This includes the inflation driving policies.

What I have typed above is not my opinion, these are the events that have happened politically. When income inequality rises too high we reach a point where upward economic mobility is highly improbable and the democratic system becomes an oligarchy/plutocracy. We have seen that policies can be enacted to correct this, and we have seen that they can be reversed to cause the problem anew. The question I ask, though, is are we willing to let our society reach a low point before we seek corrections? Are we going to ignore the lessons learned in our history?

We also had the post war boom, and people did not live then like they live today.  One car maybe, no cable tv, no smart phones, no AC for a lot of people.  I'm not saying what you are saying is wrong, but supporting a family then is different than now.