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This is a super interesting. 2 interesting bits of history I feel people need to consider on this topic; Firstly in my limited discussions I'm surprised how ma

This is a super interesting. 2 interesting bits of history I feel people need to consider on this topic; Firstly in my limited discussions I'm surprised how many people fail to recognise economic equality the west see's today is not normal. It's a ~70 year blip in 5,000 years of history that was heavily manufactured to be this way. Not a result of 'capitalism' as many people I've seen discussing this like to say. As 50 years ago most western countries had more government managed economies than today. And more interestingly, I wonder how society will react under democracy assuming we move to the historic norm of increased wealth inequality. As democracy in terms of masses having the vote is only about 100 years old. Less for other non-white backgrounds. As before this voting was restricted to land owners and men. Anyway I would think democracy would act as a pressure value but maybe not. Have a look at this list for how things played out over the years; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_labor_issues_and_events https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_labor_issues_and_e...

nickthemagicman 9y ago
This is a very interesting point. In the grand scheme of the human race is it realistic to call 60's-80's America, the best time time the middle class has ever had?
- Gustomaximus 9y ago
  Best is very subjective. And I as an Australian look at this from that view. I do think it would be fair to say this period gave 2 very core human benefits to the masses better than any other period; security and opportunity. Security being access to; income, housing and healthcare. Opportunity being; social mobility and access to education. IMO these 5 points should be the core goals of a functioning society. Outside this much of the rest works itself out. Oh and the other one I thought of while writing, we didn't have any great wars during this time. Not to diminish Vietnam/Korea but the majority didn't experience war like many previous modern era generations had.

nickthemagicman 9y ago

This is a very interesting point. In the grand scheme of the human race is it realistic to call 60's-80's America, the best time time the middle class has ever had?

Gustomaximus 9y ago
Best is very subjective. And I as an Australian look at this from that view. I do think it would be fair to say this period gave 2 very core human benefits to the masses better than any other period; security and opportunity. Security being access to; income, housing and healthcare. Opportunity being; social mobility and access to education. IMO these 5 points should be the core goals of a functioning society. Outside this much of the rest works itself out. Oh and the other one I thought of while writing, we didn't have any great wars during this time. Not to diminish Vietnam/Korea but the majority didn't experience war like many previous modern era generations had.