The Problem is Capitalism
(Updated below.) We are subtly taught that hunger, poverty, economic downturns, environmental disasters, are all natural phenomena, like the weather. There’s not much you can do about them, so the theory goes. The best you can do is hunker down and be ready for what comes. Really? At the federal and state levels, budgets are being slashed. We’re told we need to cut back, lower our expectations and accept “smaller government”. The US is awash in red ink, running huge deficits, but the problem isn’t that average Americans have been living beyond their means. Our schools are under funded, our teachers are underpaid, our infrastructure is falling apart, people who have jobs work longer and harder for less pay, and services that used to be widely accessible are cut to the bone or available only to those with large incomes. But as we’ll see shortly, productivity and total wealth have increased steadily for centuries, both in absolute and per capita terms. What gives? T