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Perhaps this is the answer to this question https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/ https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/

by ehmish 7y ago

galaxyLogic 7y ago
I tried to read it but didn't get the answer, I did get the good question: WTF happened in 1971? I have a dark suspicion that it has something to do with the rise of computers, of information economy. When some people can take advantage of computers and others can't that leads to income disparity.
- rpiguy 7y ago
  Primarily the site implies moving off of the gold standard in 1971 was main trigger. This decouples the growth of money, value of assets, wages, productivity, etc. which all tracked together in the preceding thirty years.
  - mntmoss 7y ago
    The years around 1970 are one of those inflection points that is a lot like the causes of the Industrial Revolution: it can't be summed into a few easy factors. For me the defining thing is the emergence of the USA from the postwar politics and policies and into more of an assumed administrator of the globalization project, a status that it retained until just recently. Besides the information systems, international containerization standards were settled around this time and jet travel was becoming more affordable. A lot of pieces were in place to renegotiate trade and labor deals. And there was a break with numerous social policies; the calls from think-tanks to reinstate a stratified society started coming out at this time too. Big public infrastructure projects mostly died out in the 70's, and the narcotic drug trade from Mexico and the resulting "drug wars" picked up in the late 60's, conveniently just in time for amphetamenes to fall out of favor. So, the move away from gold is just one of numerous things that changed in a surpisingly short time frame.
    - galaxyLogic 7y ago
      I would think move away from Gold is part of the "informationization" of the world. A bit like crypto-currency. Bitcoin is not "real", it is information.
    - rpiguy 7y ago
      Gold was the inflection point. It wasn’t just the US economy you will find a similar inflection point around the world. Even if all the other factors remained the same but the world had stayed on Breton Woods, the economic change that could have occurred since 1970 would have been orders of magnitude less.
- roenxi 7y ago
  :) When someone on what is essentially an IT forum links world happenings to IT it is a good time to sit back and reflect. The information economy has had a big effect - a silly amount of power is concentrated in US software houses. But it is more plausible that the major trends are slow financial decay as markets get further divorced from reality and truth. Tech has resulted in massive productivity gains; but productivity gains previously resulted in pay increases. I hazard that sensible investment isn't being rewarded and wages are decaying because of that. In a world where WeWork and Uber are considered great ideas someone who is investing in boring-and-steady infrastructure or basic food & comfort services is not going to get the capital allocations they deserve. That is finance and politics, not tech. Also the site thinks the answer is moving off the gold standard - I like the gold standard, but moving off it was probably a symptom and not a cause.

Perhaps this is the answer to this question https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/ https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/

by ehmish 7y ago

Perhaps this is the answer to this question https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/ https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/

I tried to read it but didn't get the answer, I did get the good question: WTF happened in 1971? I have a dark suspicion that it has something to do with the rise of computers, of information economy. When some people can take advantage of computers and others can't that leads to income disparity.

rpiguy 7y ago
Primarily the site implies moving off of the gold standard in 1971 was main trigger. This decouples the growth of money, value of assets, wages, productivity, etc. which all tracked together in the preceding thirty years.
- mntmoss 7y ago
  The years around 1970 are one of those inflection points that is a lot like the causes of the Industrial Revolution: it can't be summed into a few easy factors. For me the defining thing is the emergence of the USA from the postwar politics and policies and into more of an assumed administrator of the globalization project, a status that it retained until just recently. Besides the information systems, international containerization standards were settled around this time and jet travel was becoming more affordable. A lot of pieces were in place to renegotiate trade and labor deals. And there was a break with numerous social policies; the calls from think-tanks to reinstate a stratified society started coming out at this time too. Big public infrastructure projects mostly died out in the 70's, and the narcotic drug trade from Mexico and the resulting "drug wars" picked up in the late 60's, conveniently just in time for amphetamenes to fall out of favor. So, the move away from gold is just one of numerous things that changed in a surpisingly short time frame.
  - galaxyLogic 7y ago
    I would think move away from Gold is part of the "informationization" of the world. A bit like crypto-currency. Bitcoin is not "real", it is information.
  - rpiguy 7y ago
    Gold was the inflection point. It wasn’t just the US economy you will find a similar inflection point around the world. Even if all the other factors remained the same but the world had stayed on Breton Woods, the economic change that could have occurred since 1970 would have been orders of magnitude less.
roenxi 7y ago
:) When someone on what is essentially an IT forum links world happenings to IT it is a good time to sit back and reflect. The information economy has had a big effect - a silly amount of power is concentrated in US software houses. But it is more plausible that the major trends are slow financial decay as markets get further divorced from reality and truth. Tech has resulted in massive productivity gains; but productivity gains previously resulted in pay increases. I hazard that sensible investment isn't being rewarded and wages are decaying because of that. In a world where WeWork and Uber are considered great ideas someone who is investing in boring-and-steady infrastructure or basic food & comfort services is not going to get the capital allocations they deserve. That is finance and politics, not tech. Also the site thinks the answer is moving off the gold standard - I like the gold standard, but moving off it was probably a symptom and not a cause.