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There are two separate issues here, and the distinction is often missed. It is one thing when commodification brings to the masses what was once accessible only

There are two separate issues here, and the distinction is often missed. It is one thing when commodification brings to the masses what was once accessible only to the rich. It is an entirely separate and independent thing to make the economy more egalitarian, and some would argue just. Capitalism seems to consistently do the former phenomenally well and make the latter catastrophically worse. I think that's why we keep having absurd arguments about "the poor having microwaves" while we live in a grotesquely unequal society.

danielheath 6y ago
Once upon a time, free-market capitalism did the 'make egalitarian' part just fine. In the 1960s, the USA had a 91% marginal tax rate for the highest income bracket (91% of income over 200k went to the government). In 2019 it's 37%.
- Gibbon1 6y ago
  Something I picked up that seems to have been dropped down the memory hole. Under Truman the US was running a hot consumer command economy from the end of WWII to the mid 50's. In some ways very much like China is doing now. Also mid 1980's to 2000 saw the depression era limits on accumulating wealth via pure capital machinations removed one by one. Were now in the reverse situation. from 1950. Where it was possible to make money producing consumer goods and impossible to make money via rent seeking. Now rent seeking is how you make money. And it's obvious looking at the government response to the 2008 financial crisis and the pandemic this year that's being enforced via policy.
- asddubs 6y ago
  I think part of the problem is that money is a proxy for political power, causing a tendency for legislative devolution like you describe
avereveard 6y ago
there will always be some resource scarcity, and there's no egalitarian economy that resulted in increased availability of luxuries across the board, on the contrary, all attempts at egalitarianism just pushed the average luxury availability to the people down.
ckuehne 6y ago
"and make the latter catastrophically worse" Wrong: https://ourworldindata.org/global-economic-inequality#global-income-inequality-increased-for-2-centuries-and-is-now-falling https://ourworldindata.org/global-economic-inequality#global...

danielheath 6y ago

Once upon a time, free-market capitalism did the 'make egalitarian' part just fine. In the 1960s, the USA had a 91% marginal tax rate for the highest income bracket (91% of income over 200k went to the government). In 2019 it's 37%.

Gibbon1 6y ago
Something I picked up that seems to have been dropped down the memory hole. Under Truman the US was running a hot consumer command economy from the end of WWII to the mid 50's. In some ways very much like China is doing now. Also mid 1980's to 2000 saw the depression era limits on accumulating wealth via pure capital machinations removed one by one. Were now in the reverse situation. from 1950. Where it was possible to make money producing consumer goods and impossible to make money via rent seeking. Now rent seeking is how you make money. And it's obvious looking at the government response to the 2008 financial crisis and the pandemic this year that's being enforced via policy.
asddubs 6y ago
I think part of the problem is that money is a proxy for political power, causing a tendency for legislative devolution like you describe

avereveard 6y ago

there will always be some resource scarcity, and there's no egalitarian economy that resulted in increased availability of luxuries across the board, on the contrary, all attempts at egalitarianism just pushed the average luxury availability to the people down.

ckuehne 6y ago

"and make the latter catastrophically worse" Wrong: https://ourworldindata.org/global-economic-inequality#global-income-inequality-increased-for-2-centuries-and-is-now-falling https://ourworldindata.org/global-economic-inequality#global...