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You can thank Nixon and the abandoning of the Gold Standard in 1971 for this problem. It allowed government to print $ unchecked. When new $ gets printed, it g
by matthest 2y ago
You can thank Nixon and the abandoning of the Gold Standard in 1971 for this problem.
It allowed government to print $ unchecked. When new $ gets printed, it goes to the corporations/rich first, causing inflation for everyone else. This artificially creates an extremely wealthy class.
Not saying the Gold Standard is the solution - it had its own set of problems. But the untying of money from a real, hard asset is what makes the existence of the ultra-rich possible.
- chris_va 2y agoHistory would strongly disagree with this pet theory.
- matthest 2y agohttps://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide-to-statistics-on-historical-trends-in-income-inequality https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide... From CBPP, a left-leaning think tank: "The years from the end of World War II into the 1970s were ones of substantial economic growth and broadly shared prosperity. Beginning in the 1970s, economic growth slowed and the income gap widened."
- roughly 2y agoThere were substantial policy and economic philosophy changes around this time. The 1970s are the rise of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics, which led to the Reagan Revolution in the US and Thatcherism in the UK, as well as the Washington Consensus within the IMF & World Bank. Those were the philosophies that drove the privatization and anti-union movements over the following half-century, which decimated the power of labor and removed restrictions on the accumulation of wealth, which directly led to the current state of affairs.
- chris_va 2y agoUltra-rich wealth disparity far predates 1970
- matthest 2y agoAgreed. But in the modern era, the abandoning of the Gold Standard so Gov could print money to fight in Vietnam was as major catalyst.
- aylmao 2y agoI wouldn't say it's what makes the ultra-rich possible, but it certainly makes things easier for them.
- tremon 2y agoIs money printing the problem? I'd say the amount of money in circulation since the 2000s has massively increased not by government printing but by overvaluation of virtual financial products, including stocks.