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Why America is going backward: Being the richest nation in history isn't enough
- jqpabc123 3y agoWhy? Because we are in "late stage capitalism". Capitalism is ultimately self defeating. Companies strive to reduce labor costs and thus inflate the bottom line --- with the savings mostly accruing to those at the top. But paying out less in wages will eventually shrink the available market for the products and services the companies produce. Capitalists have traditionally sought out new markets to combat this issue. But now, there are few new markets left --- and consequently, the system is stagnating and drowning in debt and trending toward collapse.
- quantified 3y agoAnd pursuit of collecting profit decidedly is not pursuit of anyone's well-being. Workplace safety and food inspection regimes did not come about due to market pressure, for example.
- Blackstrat 3y agoCapitalism is ultimately self defeating? And the alternative?
- jqpabc123 3y agoSocialism or collapse/anarchy --- take your pick. You don't have to be psychic to see that concentrating ever more wealth in fewer and fewer hands is ultimately not a "good thing" for anyone --- even the wealthy. If death is only the proof they will accept, so be it. It may well reach that point.
- Blackstrat 3y agoSocialism concentrates wealth as well. The difference is that capitalism allows the chance of success. Socialism does not.
- jfengel 3y agoIt's true, but every developed country is also in late stage capitalism. Many appear to be trying to trend away from predictable path of aggregating all of the wealth in a few hands -- or at least, trying to ensure that the poorest aren't desperate enough to google plans for guillotines. They're having mixed success, and it may be that late-stage capitalism will come for them regardless. But the US appears to be going full steam ahead. It's something about our culture. There are so many factors that it's hard to frame it in a few sentences. It does feel as if we bought into "capitalism" extra hard, which made us super-wealthy, but also a belief that anybody who isn't wealthy (or trying to be) is mentally and morally deficient. And it dovetails with a longstanding xenophobia, that anybody sufficiently different must be oppressed. All of these properties exist elsewhere. America just seems to do them harder than anybody else, and that's creating a lot of suffering. And we refuse to change anything about it, because we never feel rich enough.
- cyanydeez 3y agoI'd wager they don't have any evidence that America is the richest nation in history.
- quantified 3y agoWhat might be a richer nation? There are no records of one. There are other quite rich ones today, perhaps with higher wealth per citizen averages. Perhaps a wealthier nation existed once and left no trace.
- kelseyfrog 3y agoWhich choices go into your operationalization of wealth and why did you make them?
- quantified 3y agoAvailability of shelter, food, water, medicine, transportation. Are they evenly available to all? No. Are they there to be available? Yes. Neither Caesar Augustus not Louis the XVIth could have travelled from Los Angeles to New York City in a quarter of a day and it takes only 1 week of labor at USD 10/hour to obtain the needed money. There are many measures of wealth for a nation though, and they aren't the same as measurea of wealth for individual people. What measures do you usually employ?
- kelseyfrog 3y agoCan you help me understand why you chose availability rather than accumulation?
- quantified 3y agoI don't operationalize anything, I'm just listing and describing. Things aren't available unless they are either accumulated already or can be produced quickly from other things that already are accumulated. There is enormous wealth in all the infrastructure and institutions large and small. For all the value in the medicines that currently sit on shelves, the ability to crank up production of some if deemed necessary is of great value too. We're not great at allocating the national wealth IMHO but we can see countries that do it much worse.