QuoteStill, that doesn't change the fact that the U.S. economy has had a remarkable four-year run
Reification. The American economy is given the breath of life. Something that actually does not exist is made real. The intended consequence, delusion. Grows.
Workers sell their time to the highest bidder. Few people own any means of production. The few who do use their machinery and facilities to create profit for themselves. Without regard for the community. This privileged minority impoverish people as the slice paid in wages becomes EVER smaller to make their profit slice larger over time.
A fact hidden by reification of the 'economy' into something of substance. In real life substance does not change from one moment to the next. C'est la vie. Substance means existence, and substance resists change. Barney the Dino lives.
Calling exploitation the 'economy' hides an ugly truth. Wage slavery erodes workers over time. The process is inexorable. It is a feature of the system.
QuoteA more subtle consequence, and arguably a more important one, is a shift in power from employers to workers.
Talking about the pandemic here. I am surprised the comparison to the black death was not thrown into the mix. Workers demanding more money for their time. The horror. Social fabric ripped asunder. This perceived prosperity of the undeserving who own nothing must be beaten down or chaos will rule the land. Don't you know:
QuoteIf you are a janitor who smokes a fat doobie and watches You Tube all day you do not need the same political rights as Elon Musk. Musk knows what to do with stuff and you don't.
There is no power shift. This is castles in the air. Workers do not own the means of production. Employers have all power.
For years the delusion that workers have power has been pushed. Bullshit on that. Unions are DEAD. Americans think well educated wage-slavers are part of an upper class. Owners who reap profits know better. They like this pretend game very much. It makes their theft look normal, and this pretend game lets them hide in plain sight. Owners like people who get an extra scoop of gruel thinking they are one of them.
The 'economy' is doing well no, the king is altogether as naked as the day that he was born. The winds of chaos blow anew and the means of production is owned by few. That fact has not changed. As many people suffer as are doing well. A thousand Atlantic articles can't change that fact.
America is going the way of SODO.
SODO is south of downtown Seattle. It has a 1st avenue that has been delightfully gentrifying for years. I worked for a billionaire on this road for five years before the pandemic. Stormy Daniels headlined at the 1st avenue Strip Club. Starbucks headquarters is on the road, and a Starbucks retail outlet of course. But across the street is a higher end pastry / coffee shop where for eight bucks every day you can enjoy your wage slavery (or ownership) like a king before you do whatever at obviously more than twenty bucks an hour.
4th avenue is 'across the tracks'. Tracks that carry oil trains now. There is a Denny's Diner on 4th avenue. Every time I go by and 'Denny's' is still open it is a good day. The high end pastry shop equivalent on 4th is an AM/PM gas station where a candy bar costs three bucks. You can get out the door with coffee and a doughnut for four bucks. Make sure you enjoy the sprinkles on your doughnut or you might feel gyped. Homeless people pass by pushing shopping carts as you wave your plastic. Plastic bags are their shelter from the rain. Every day 4th avenue gets more run down. No plastic no doughnut. A street of dreams, and a street of broken dreams. Oil trains running between. Oil to make more plastic. This is America.
Go reify that 'Atlantic' writers. Give the ever widening gap the same reality that you give your precious 'economy'. But you won't. You created your 'economy' to hide reality. To hide your money game. To keep the theft of the commons normal and legal.