The trend towards equality in the US reversed itself in 1970. That's when corporations consciously organized against the anti-corporate sentiment that had developed during the civil rights movement, the environmental movement and the counterculture movement. That's also when workers' wages peaked in real terms. Reagan fired the striking airline traffic controllers, and their replacements are retiring now en masse. The last 50 years aren't much in terms of history, but may be analogous to the sea withdrawing from the shore right before the arrival of a tidal wave of reforms.
You're right to observe that wealth inequality has exploded since the early 1970s. The middle class is in a state of collapse. The only thing you didn't mention was Nixon's closure of the gold window in August of 1971.
The upward trajectory of history is like a stock market chart, with exhilarating peaks and terrifying collapses. It is, of course, the two-steps-forward-one-step-back sort of progress.
I think you said it best with the analog to the sea withdrawing from the shore right before the arrival of a tidal wave.
I hadn't heard of this before, Chris. Great reference! It seems that the underground presses of pre-revolutionary France did more to bring about the revolution than any high-minded philosophy, because they stripped the ruling class of its dignity. Irreverent portrayals of the monarchy and the church were rampant in the literature actually read by the people of the era.
The trend towards equality in the US reversed itself in 1970. That's when corporations consciously organized against the anti-corporate sentiment that had developed during the civil rights movement, the environmental movement and the counterculture movement. That's also when workers' wages peaked in real terms. Reagan fired the striking airline traffic controllers, and their replacements are retiring now en masse. The last 50 years aren't much in terms of history, but may be analogous to the sea withdrawing from the shore right before the arrival of a tidal wave of reforms.
Howdy Chris, thanks for commenting!
You're right to observe that wealth inequality has exploded since the early 1970s. The middle class is in a state of collapse. The only thing you didn't mention was Nixon's closure of the gold window in August of 1971.
The upward trajectory of history is like a stock market chart, with exhilarating peaks and terrifying collapses. It is, of course, the two-steps-forward-one-step-back sort of progress.
I think you said it best with the analog to the sea withdrawing from the shore right before the arrival of a tidal wave.
See Darnton's The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France, and compare the public discourse today.
I hadn't heard of this before, Chris. Great reference! It seems that the underground presses of pre-revolutionary France did more to bring about the revolution than any high-minded philosophy, because they stripped the ruling class of its dignity. Irreverent portrayals of the monarchy and the church were rampant in the literature actually read by the people of the era.