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>> But then [post-1970s] some kind of shit seemingly started to poison the country. https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/ https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/ - the oil ran

• nine_k 9mo ago
  You mean, cheap oil ran out. Also, the last remaining sort-of-gold-standard was abolished, so the money printer could go brrr without much restrain, as needed.
• JKCalhoun 9mo ago
  If you think being tethered to gold was a good thing I wonder if you also believe wealth is a zero-sum proposal? I would think that the explosive growth of wealth since 1971 would cause most to rethink that.
  • wffurr 9mo ago
    >> If you think being tethered to gold was a good thing I wouldn't say that. But the memes about 1971 are striking. >> I wonder if you also believe wealth is a zero-sum proposal I don't know where that comes from. Pretty clearly it's not. Building stuff that multiplies labor productivity produces more wealth for everyone. I think the issue in 1971 wasn't the end of the gold standard per se, but the end of the post-war reconstruction boom, the end of cheap oil subsidizing literally everything, and what I didn't mention in my original comment but it also highly relevant is the drastic lowering of top tax rates. Wealth isn't zero-sum, but dividing up the share of the newly created wealth is. The more of it that goes to capital instead of labor, the more of that share of productivity growth is captured by the rich instead of the workers, who end up not sharing in the broader prosperity of society.