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For many people, economic history appears to begin with the New Deal, when FDR willed the middle class into existence with a chicken in every pot. A moment's t
by cltby 6y ago
For many people, economic history appears to begin with the New Deal, when FDR willed the middle class into existence with a chicken in every pot.
A moment's thought should convince you that commerce antedates redistribution, wage floors, etc. Prosperity doesn't require a collectivist thumb on the scales.
- michaelmrose 6y agoCan you point out the capitalist paradise where prosperity for the many doesn't require such a thumb on the scale? It certainly isn't the US where in fact said thumb is presently pressed firmly on that scale via social security, food stamps, medicare, medicaid, tanif, section 8 and so forth.
- cltby 6y agoYou are right to point out that such places don't exist. But it's worth remembering that the US was wealthy (and increasingly so) long before Keynes dressed up playground fairness as an academic discipline. Rich societies enable the existence of big government, not the other way around.
- nouveaux 6y agoPrior to Keynes, the US built it's wealth on slave labor. The cost for human rights is high.
- cltby 6y agoThere is a strong consensus among economic historians that slavery didn't move the needle that much. Cotton production was perhaps 5% of GDP. The slave stock constituted perhaps 15% of national wealth. https://sci-hub.tw/10.1016/j.eeh.2017.12.002 https://sci-hub.tw/10.1016/j.eeh.2017.12.002
- michaelmrose 6y agoSlavery wasn't an evenly distributed affair.