In the mid-70’s, we traded in our post-World War II social contract for a new one, where “greed is good.” In the new moral narrative I can succeed at your expense. I will take a bigger piece of a smaller pie. Our new heroes are billionaires, hedge fund managers, and CEO’s. In this narrative, they deserve more wealth so they can create more jobs, even as they lay off workers, close factories and invest new capital in low-wage countries. Their values and their interests come first in education, retirement security, and certainly in labour law.
In the new moral view, anyone making “poor choices” is responsible for his or her own ruin. The unfortunate are seen as unworthy moochers and parasites. We disparage teachers, government workers, the long-term unemployed, and immigrants. In this era, popular media figures are spiteful and divisive.
We can start rebuilding our social cohesion when we say all work has dignity. Workers earn a share of the wealth we create. We all do better, when we all do better. My prosperity depends on a prosperous community with opportunity and fairness.
http://www.eoionline.org/blog/x-marks-the-spot-where-inequality-took-root-dig-here
I have a theory that the 'real' baby-boomers (say, '42-'50) are the most selfish generation ever born. Ideal childhoods in the 50's, free love and free thought in the 60's, sex drugs and disco in the 70's, then Just Say No and Abstinence in the 80's, the consolodation of wealth and power in the 80's and demanding the most in the 2000+'s as they grey out.
ReplyDeleteAlso, microprocessors.
ReplyDeleteMy Dad and I were right, they didn't use them to liberate us all from slave labour. And that's why we can't have nice things: the rich are siphoning up all the money for themselves. Soon, one guy will have it all. Those of us growing food and sharing it will tell him, if you are hungry, eat your money.
But the real culprit is not greed is good but zero-sum greed is as good as productive greed.
ReplyDeleteOnce we get productivity to ∞, and labor to 0, capitalism will be complete.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe this, and they present no proof. The wild claim that Capitalism was discredited. by the great depression is unsupported by any evidence. Personally, I think microprocessors replaced the need for many workers.
ReplyDeleteJorf Nerfherder: Not necessarily.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. Once we have fully automated production and consumption and ownership, it will be complete. Where is it written that capitalism should be for the benefit of man or society?
ReplyDeleteWhere is it written that capitalism is the only choice?
ReplyDeleteButt, butt, man's greatest purpose is getting the most 0s after their name. It's all about the high score, which ultimately is one man sitting atop a pile of 8 billion skulls, secure in the knowledge that he has won.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot 'and to hear the lamentations of their women' :D
ReplyDelete"Cwush!"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBGOQ7SsJrw
ReplyDeleteI remember the 70's vividly. Utter crap.
ReplyDeleteI only scanned the piece a bit but I do not recall "greed is good" in that time frame. I remember a world economy finally coming out of the WWII doldrums (that benefitted almost exclusively North America, or at least the US), creating a great transition in the economy.
For example, US auto worker unions were beginning to feel the pain of Japanese imports. This is the sort of thing that really started depressing working people. Prior to that, the greedy auto execs could pass along union demands to greedy consumers.
Sorry Charles Filipponi the transition from hippy to Gecko started in the mid to late 70's. The 80's didn't spring up out of nothing.
ReplyDeleteWhile I completely agree with the sentiment of the article, I'm skeptical about the specifics. Nothing is said about why the morality shifted, and that change in the graph is sudden and dramatic. That looks more like the effect of a policy change than a widespread shift in moral standards to me.
ReplyDeleteRhys Taylor: But there's a continuous feedback loop between the morality (of the dominant culture, which may not be the majority culture) and the regulatory policy.
ReplyDeleteRhys Taylor Starting in the '60s (US) there was a movement within conservative organizations (think tanks, research groups, etc) that helped the republican party lay the groundwork for a 'modern' economy. Ok, this push was already on in the '50s; remember Eisenhower's warning against the military-industrial complex? WWII helped consolidate and prune entire industries to where companies were now national and moving to global influence. The Republican party was seen as the best lever for getting away from the war time tax setup and bringing down the social contract infrastructure Roosevelt had put in place, buttressed by Kennedy and Johnson administrations. It's basically been a slow moving, creeping form of fascism, wrapped in the twin flags of patriotism and economic 'freedom'.
ReplyDeleteTed Ewen You are correct - the 80's didn't spring out of nothing.
ReplyDeleteAs to what that has to do with my comment, I do not know.