| It is really interesting to read the comments in this thread. From an outsider's perspective, US has been the most prosperous country in this planet. People generally have good chances to move up the class ladder. And there are a lot of active enterprises. But I had the strong feeling that this stop to be the case in recent decades. The reason, as I see it, is the natural tendency of capitalism, people seeking to maximize their individual capital. In the past century, with the pressure of the cold war, this tendency is balanced by the government, as US needed its working class to actually make innovations and make products to gain the advantage in the competition with the Soviet Union. In fact, the working class got their best treatment during the cold war, and then it worsens in recent decades. Now with the Soviet Union dead, and China is still too young to be an actual competitor. There is no obstacle for the capitalists to play their games. It should be evident for most Americans that the price of properties are inflating while the increase of their salary slowed. The government also got eroded, most of the people there are either capitalists or have good relationship with them. What will be their incentives to change the rules? This is not just the problem with US, it happens also in China. And I don't see a solution to it. The lower classes are controlled tightly by the media, which is controlled by the capitalists. And the middle class is thin and divided. In fact a lot of the middle class try very hard to climb the social ladder so they can be one of the upper class. They don't want the game changed, just "modified" to benefit themselves a bit. |