DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - The myth of 'American exceptionalism' implodes

**gooseCile** · 01-20-2011, 04:16 PM

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...lobalrecession

One aspect of "American exceptionalism" was always economic. US workers, so the story went, enjoyed a rising level of real wages that afforded their families a rising standard of living.

Then everything changed. Real wages stopped rising, as US capitalists redirected their investments to produce and employ abroad, while replacing millions of workers in the US with computers. The US women's liberation moved millions of US adult women to seek paid employment. US capitalism no longer faced a shortage of labour.

US employers took advantage of the changed situation: they stopped raising wages. When basic labour scarcity became labour excess, not only real wages, but eventually benefits, too, would stop rising. Over the last 30 years, the vast majority of US workers have, in fact, gotten poorer, when you sum up flat real wages, reduced benefits (pensions, medical insurance, etc), reduced public services and raised tax burdens. In economic terms, American "exceptionalism" began to die in the 1970s.

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Unions, taxes, regulations and the nature of globalism itself is destined to leave us with seas of the unemployed or under employed.

The cumulative effect of this is beyond simple economics... Where unemployment, inflation and the like are merely "political problems"

Well, those "political" problems are going to BECOME the problem. We can't have a fifth of the nation unemployed in perpetuity.

They either need jobs or I truly believe we're going to begin slouching towards a European style socialist model.

Hungry people and 20 something kids with 250K in debt and no prospects won't just die on principle... They're going to start making demands. They are going to expect opportunity.

If they don't get it, look for major changes.... Globalist rhetoric won't satisfy them.

01-20-2011, 04:16 PM	#1
gooseCile Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 563 Senior Member	The myth of 'American exceptionalism' implodes http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...lobalrecession One aspect of "American exceptionalism" was always economic. US workers, so the story went, enjoyed a rising level of real wages that afforded their families a rising standard of living. Then everything changed. Real wages stopped rising, as US capitalists redirected their investments to produce and employ abroad, while replacing millions of workers in the US with computers. The US women's liberation moved millions of US adult women to seek paid employment. US capitalism no longer faced a shortage of labour. US employers took advantage of the changed situation: they stopped raising wages. When basic labour scarcity became labour excess, not only real wages, but eventually benefits, too, would stop rising. Over the last 30 years, the vast majority of US workers have, in fact, gotten poorer, when you sum up flat real wages, reduced benefits (pensions, medical insurance, etc), reduced public services and raised tax burdens. In economic terms, American "exceptionalism" began to die in the 1970s. __________________________________________________ ___________________________ Unions, taxes, regulations and the nature of globalism itself is destined to leave us with seas of the unemployed or under employed. The cumulative effect of this is beyond simple economics... Where unemployment, inflation and the like are merely "political problems" Well, those "political" problems are going to BECOME the problem. We can't have a fifth of the nation unemployed in perpetuity. They either need jobs or I truly believe we're going to begin slouching towards a European style socialist model. Hungry people and 20 something kids with 250K in debt and no prospects won't just die on principle... They're going to start making demands. They are going to expect opportunity. If they don't get it, look for major changes.... Globalist rhetoric won't satisfy them.
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