[wkat4242]

The US was much poorer back then. Much lower standard of living. So wages were also much lower even inflation-corrected. Also there was a war going in and people were drafted and had no choice but to work for a minimal salary. I think that explains a lot of it.

[ipnon]

The whole country had a mission, and the overwhelming feeling was that the US along with the Allies were in a conflict for survival, that without winning the war the existence of the US would not be possible. On December 6th 1941 public opinion leaned towards isolation from the “European” war. On December 8th 1941 Congress voted unanimously sans 1 vote to declare war against Japan. It is hard to overstate the fervor that immediately swept over the whole country. People are willing to endure the most demanding trials given the proper circumstances; at times the most realistic course of action is to do what once seemed impossible.

[galaxyLogic]

It seems obvious to me that authoritarian regimes have much more corruption than democratic ones because in a dictatorship there is no transparency and therefore corruption goes undetected. That means that power and wealth gets concentrated into hands of a small elite. There is less true innovation. What makes things cheaper is the progress of democracy.

[dTal]

>That means that power and wealth gets concentrated into hands of a small elite

It is with some restraint that I note that "democracy" per se does a piss-poor job of preventing this, when Tim Cook's net worth exceeds the yearly GDP of the Seychelles. This is particularly true in a world where capital controls information channels, and therefore public opinion. To really prevent capitalists from capitalizing on their capital to amass ever more capital, you also need a social infrastructure that redistributes wealth away from powerful individuals back to society, so that social issues can be addressed.

[galaxyLogic]

That is true, but at least in theory in democracies people can vote for progressive taxation.

I'm not sure if wealth is any better distributed in autocratic countries, think Putin's Russia and its oligarchs.

Democracy is a continuum, any country can evolve into either direction. It's not like this country is democratic and that is not. Countries have more or less of it.

[JustifyContent]

"The only post-Jobs CEO of the second most valuable company in the world has a higher net worth than the 10th smallest country in the world, with less population than Apple has employees".

Yeah, I sure hope that would be true otherwise Apple has some explaining to do.