Saturday, December 12, 2009

THE NEOLIBERAL REVOLUTION


This graph (from this report on economic mobility - or the lack thereof (pdf), via ManfromMiddletown's diary on the decline of unions in the USA in the past 40 years) shows the fundamental nature of the Reagan/Thatcher revolution: wealth is created (or, often, captured) at the expense of the middle classes.

GDP numbers look good, but not their repartition. Proponents argue that the wealth could be distributed, as it is created in bigger numbers, but somehow it isn't, and their killer argument against redistribution is that it would reduce the wealth creation, and thus should be avoided. The elites have created a win-win situation for them - or, more to the point, a lose-lose situation for middle classes: either there is wealth, as long as it's not shared, or there isn't any wealth at all.

Go back to work. It's better if some of us enjoy the fruits of that labor, rather than noone, right?

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