Capitalism: Downhill Since 1973
Thursday, September 10th, 2009Mark Weisbrot of CEPR wrote a review of the new documentary from Michael Moore, Capitalism: A Love Story, which comes out on October 2, 2009. Weisbrot’s review will give you an idea of some of the movie’s content. The use of an Iggy Pop song as background music for robbing banks piqued my interest, as did this — probably because I was born in 1973:
He gets the economic story right. How is it that Michael Moore’s father could buy a house and raise a family on the income of one auto worker, and still have a pension for his retirement? And yet this is not possible in the vastly more productive economy of today? The answer is not complicated: in the first half of the post-War era, employees shared in the gains from productivity growth; since 1973, most of them have hardly done so at all … Moore also explains the structural changes, such as Ronald Reagan’s rollback of union and labour relations to the 19th century, that helped bring about the most massive upward redistribution of income in US history.
