Problem
Since the 1970s, productivity has gone up but real wages for most people have gone down. They keep saying the economy is booming and business is great. Corporations keep posting record profits. But where’s the money? It’s certainly not in your pockets.1
Bernie Sanders: The Economy Is Rigged 1min
Almost all new income and wealth is going to the top one percent.
It feels like you’re working harder than ever before. Longer hours with more expectations. And even with that raise, it still feels like your making less. Rent’s up, food’s up, and gas is through the roof. And while your bosses say they’re feeling the squeeze too, it hasn’t kept them from being able to afford that second yacht.2
Why It’s So Hard To Imagine Life After Capitalism 18min
Quote from the above source.
It doesn’t feel like an accident, does it? That’s because it’s not. And try as we might to change it, we usually can’t. It doesn’t seem our government was designed to serve us—the people. More often than not, only corporate interests are served.3
TKTK 5min
Quote from above source
It feels bad. It is bad. But there’s hope.
Sources about real wages and corporate profits.↩︎
TKTK↩︎
“[E]conomic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.” Martin Giles and Benjamin I. Page, “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens” (Cambridge University Press, 2014).↩︎
Dive Deeper
All of the information in here is just placeholders for now. It is just meant to test these “deep dive” boxes and remind me how to do them when I need them in the future.