Marx was right
Welcome to the party…
Apparently Marx was publicly proven right with 2008 economic collapse. It turns out that the economy was being kept propped up via debt fueling consumer spending. And that the majority did not have enough income to be able to facilitate enough consumption by their income alone.
This is due to the electronics revolution of 1970s cutting manufacturing jobs. Assisted by advances in technology and more automation which also cut need for side suppliers and cutting those jobs as well, these reduced number of jobs and their pay for everyone in the West.
Hence dropping of gold standard back in 1970s and ramping up of debt economy. And deregulation of financial sector — especially fractional reserve lending by private banks — to facilitate debt economy.
Well, it worked, for like ~30 years. from mid 1970s to 2008, when the setup was exposed to the world. Then everything came crashing down.
In retrospect, even prominent economists who opposed ideas of Marx did not contest this would happen — they admitted that this would happen, but they were proposing solutions for it. Milton Friedman’s solution was UBI, for example. So, yeah, you read that right — Friedman did not contest Marx’s analysis of Capitalism and how it would eventually automate jobs away and this would cause a crisis because then majority of people wouldnt have income and therefore wouldnt be able to buy products and services. He acknowledged it, and he was proposing solutions for it.
Hence the decline of good paying jobs at large in US, and the increase of low paid service jobs. And the tech jobs which were created did not at all make up enough for that loss of jobs.
Worse is coming.
Those service jobs and even a vast segment of white collar jobs are also going away in the next decade.
Yes, Marx was right.
