[pmoriarty]

"shouldn't everyone from the upper to lower class be up in arms if there is such a favoritism toward executives and shareholders?"

Most people are just too tired, too busy with their own lives, too disillusioned with idealistic promises of change, and too fearful of repercussions to try to rock the boat unless they're starving and have nothing to lose.

As long as they've got their bread and circuses, nothing will substantively change.

Even if/when it does change, history shows that we'll probably just wind up with a new boss who's the same as the old boss.

[msbarnett]

> Even if/when it does change, history shows that we'll probably just wind up with a new boss who's the same as the old boss.

But history doesn’t show anything of the sort? History instead shows a clear path to how Europe ended up with the bottom 50% ending up with a much larger portion of wealth than the top 1%.

What’s remarkable here is not how impossible change is, but how Americans have utterly resigned themselves to the supposed unchanging inevitability of their current situation despite clear evidence that alternative modes of operating aren’t just possible but clearly exist right now.

America’s primary problem with change seems first and foremost to be its own fatalistic delusion that being any other way is impossible.

[pjc50]

> History instead shows a clear path to how Europe ended up with the bottom 50% ending up with a much larger portion of wealth than the top 1%.

I'm convinced that this was mostly due to the war. Indiscriminate destruction and injury is a great leveller. It also triggered the end of colonialism in the 70s, which was critical to egalitarianism.

This almost happened in America, but it's difficult to trace the exact point of failure. Possibly Carter's failed Iran rescue and subsequent non re election?

[msbarnett]

Europe went heavily in on trade unions after the war, partially as an antidote to fascism and occasionally with direct US support for strengthening them (as in post-War Germany). Domestically, however, the US significantly weakened unions first by strongly opposing efforts for unions to receive a seat on corporate board of directors (which they had supported in Germany), and via Red Scare union busting tactics.

The long term hostility toward unions essentially won in the ‘80s when Regan broke the air traffic controllers, and the rapid rise in wealth inequality from the ‘80s onwards seems a very direct result.

[TooBrokeToBeg]

> But history doesn’t show anything of the sort?

Depends on the timescale, but it looks a lot more like the hierarchies re-establish in a similar fashion. Often from the same lineages, over time!

[dmoy]

s/bottom 1%/top 1%/ ?

Otherwise that's trivially true for all countries, no?

[msbarnett]

Whoops, top, yeah.