[Super_Jambo]

This doesn't really stand up to the facts. Governments went off the gold standard far before 1971. By this logic the New Deal and WW2 government spending should've caused huge inequality through inflation.

It seems far more about the success of neoliberal policy allowing economic & political power to concentrate. The various ways that concentrated power then kept capturing more and more of the pie can't be reduced to a single simple narrative.

You have for example:

* Tax cuts

* Unregulated Monopolies

* IP law

* Owned Media

* Unlimited Campaign donations

And on and on.

[taneq]

I don't think what you're saying here disagrees with my theory. You're describing the mechanics of the second half of part 2 ('which is captured by large corporations').

As government policy is restructured to concentrate more and more wealth at the top, the rest of the economy slowly becomes illiquid and the government has to keep printing money to keep the axles greased. It's unsustainable and we're seeing the endgame now.

[Super_Jambo]

Your original post put the blame for inequality on government intervention via money printing.

Govt Inflation -> Inequality.

If only we still had the gold standard then they couldn't cause inequality!

This theory however is contradicted by a bunch of historical data.

There was massive inequality on the gold standard pre-WW1. The New Deal was a huge govt intervention which reduced inequality.

My explanation is that the problem is not government interference in 'free' markets but inequality in power. Economic power via monopolies & weak labour bargaining position AND political power via lobbying, strong parties, gerrymandering.

This power inequality is then leveraged by the powerful to create wealth inequality. The exact mechanisms by which they corrupt the systems to capture that wealth be it inflation or deflation or government handouts or M&A regulations or even slavery doesn't matter. If the systems are controlled by this massive inequality in power then it will find a way to corrupt the rules in powers favour.

So arguing for any particular economic policy is less important than reforming the voting systems, the tax system, the lobbying system and ownership of the media.