5 ms·

I have seen a ton of these kinds of articles posted here over the years, but none of them touches on what PG wrote in one of his essays: the reason salaries wer

by tomjen3 10y ago

I have seen a ton of these kinds of articles posted here over the years, but none of them touches on what PG wrote in one of his essays: the reason salaries were so high after the war and until the 70is were that the US was the only country that had a modern, intact industrial base and so it was worth it for the companies to overpay for labor, in the same way that it is worth it for a start-up to overpay for e.g servers. Later, after the boom, they started to cut their overspending.

6stringmerc 10y ago
So where did the "excess" from the "overspending" go in your model? Surely it didn't bring up the standard of living worldwide, because we'd have noticed it by now. No, your term "overspending" is far too loaded for me to believe in. I am far more inclined to believe the Investor Class has been doing their damndest to widen the wealth gap at every opportunity since WWII, and wouldn't you know it, all the numbers add up. It's much more like there was a healthy dynamic between management, investors, and the working class, and it's all been shot to shit in the name of quarterly profiteering and Ayn Rand "bootstrap" delusions.
- mistermann 10y ago
  The Ayn Rand I know would throw all of our modern "capitalists" in prison for their theft, deceit, and immoral desire for the unearned. Best not to get your opinions second or third hand from the deliberately dishonest.
- cvwright 10y ago
  > Surely it didn't bring up the standard of living worldwide, because we'd have noticed it by now. But the worldwide standard of living has massively increased over the past 50 years.
- tomjen3 10y ago
  After World War II, about the time the US was about to begin its boom, people in Holland had to go out near the coal trains so that they could pick up whatever coal had fallen off the trains, or they would have nothing to heat their homes with; Germany was flattened as was Japan and Korea. Meat rationing in the UK did not end until July 4, 1954 – that's almost a decade after the war. Japan did not start getting back on its feet until the Korean War. I have been to Germany and I can personally assure you that the life they live now is nothing like it was in 1950. So yeah, there's your rising standard of living worldwide. Key point _worldwide_, although some of it also happened to US.

by tomjen3 10y ago

6stringmerc 10y ago

So where did the "excess" from the "overspending" go in your model? Surely it didn't bring up the standard of living worldwide, because we'd have noticed it by now. No, your term "overspending" is far too loaded for me to believe in. I am far more inclined to believe the Investor Class has been doing their damndest to widen the wealth gap at every opportunity since WWII, and wouldn't you know it, all the numbers add up. It's much more like there was a healthy dynamic between management, investors, and the working class, and it's all been shot to shit in the name of quarterly profiteering and Ayn Rand "bootstrap" delusions.

mistermann 10y ago
The Ayn Rand I know would throw all of our modern "capitalists" in prison for their theft, deceit, and immoral desire for the unearned. Best not to get your opinions second or third hand from the deliberately dishonest.
cvwright 10y ago
> Surely it didn't bring up the standard of living worldwide, because we'd have noticed it by now. But the worldwide standard of living has massively increased over the past 50 years.
tomjen3 10y ago
After World War II, about the time the US was about to begin its boom, people in Holland had to go out near the coal trains so that they could pick up whatever coal had fallen off the trains, or they would have nothing to heat their homes with; Germany was flattened as was Japan and Korea. Meat rationing in the UK did not end until July 4, 1954 – that's almost a decade after the war. Japan did not start getting back on its feet until the Korean War. I have been to Germany and I can personally assure you that the life they live now is nothing like it was in 1950. So yeah, there's your rising standard of living worldwide. Key point _worldwide_, although some of it also happened to US.