Reuters global editor at large Chrystia Freeland wrote in a
2011 column,
Capitalism is Failing the Middle Class, what many of us have been complaining about for
years, but what may finally be sinking in to skulls of the policy wonks that
have influence with the movers and shakers of global capitalism. She sited two
studies, one written by Michael Spence, published by the
Council on Foreign Relations, and the other David Auter, published by the
Brookings Institution. Both papers warn of the long term national consequences of lower wages and fewer job opportunities caused by shipping jobs overseas. From Chrystia Freeland:
Globalization and the technology revolution are increasing productivity and
prosperity. But those rewards are unevenly shared – they are going to the
people at the top in the United States, and enriching emerging economies over
all. But the American middle class is losing out.
To Americans in the middle, it may seem surprising that it takes a Nobel
laureate and sheaves of economic data to reach this unremarkable conclusion.
But the analysis and its impeccable provenance matter, because this basic truth
about how the world economy is working today is being ignored by most of the
politicians in the United States and denied by many of its leading business
people.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that capitalism by itself is no guarantee
of the kind of large, prosperous middle class that used to define Americans as a land of opportunity.
Businesses in this world can find poor grunts to work long days under terrible conditions for enough food to keep from starving. Businesses should remember that working customers will spend more if they're paid more.
Do people work for the economy or does the economy work for people?
The middle class was brought to us by those who fought for a combination of
government policies and labor contracts: compulsory education and the schools
that needed to be built, the Land Grant College Act, child labor laws, the
minimum wage, workers compensation, social security, unemployment benefits,
Medicare, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the eight-hour
day, weekends, collective bargaining, anti-discrimination laws that were all
passed despite fierce opposition from conservatives and corporations.
And they’re still at it.