The New York Times yesterday profiled inequality researchers Saez and Piketty. In doing so, the paper of record says, regarding the country’s basic economic history, “income inequality in the United States fell after World War II.”
This familiar liberal trope is complete jive, as we TCTers know:
As this elementary graph, built from the data of none other than Saez and Picketty themselves, shows, income inequality has only ever seen a meaningful decline during, during, DURING World War II! I mean how fricking stupid can these apologists get? The basic fact literally screams in your face. Left to its own devices, corporate capitalism never equalizes the income distribution. The best it can do on that front is tread water for a couple decades after a freak intervention by the public.
This, of course, should come as no surprise. Capitalists obtained the right to run their affairs via oligopolies in order to maximize their own ROI, not to improve society.
Yeah, I’d say the graph nails it pretty damn well – nothing about this is too complicated, but you put it in definitive terms – what possible response is there from the apologists but to check their bank acccounts?
I’m going to have to expose my ignorance here, but what exactly caused income inequality to fall during WWII?
Tro, the government ran the economy and there was full employment. There were price controls and bans on manufacturing wasteful products like cars. If you want to learn the details, take a look at books by Harold Vatter.
We could obviously do the same thing again now, with the effort being directed to reconstructing the country to be ecologically sustainable. Equally obviously, that possibility is “off the table,” as it is anathema to capitalists.
Thanks for the book recommendations, I will check him out.