cyberdora wrote:
Texasmoneyman300 wrote:
I think a lot of the shift was because of Milton Friedman and shareholder primacy in the 70's and 80's.
Free market laissez-faire government has been around since the 19th century. Oil robber barons, mining magnates, big business cartels, automobile and banking tycoons greedily accumulated wealth and avoided paying tax. they intergenerationally bribe politicians through campaign donations to ensure they can continue to exploit taxpayers. And its not just greed. It's also avoiding civic duty in costly industrial emissions control, pollution or class action over worker safety or putting civilians at risk.
the myth of laissez faire is that big business would share and allow profit to trickle down to the masses is a scam. Instead you have a small elite who squirrel away trillions of dollars in cash and assets and live in palatial mansions with 400 rooms which they never use.
I know it has been around for quite some time but during the Progessive Era/ FDR and post-war era up the 70's capitalism in America was a lot less laissez faire than it was during the Gilded Age. We had stagflation and oil shocks in the 70's which left a void for more laissez faire capitalism. A big development was the Friedman Doctrine also know as shareholder primacy which says a companies only job is to make money for its investors. This was the era of Jack Welch and the 80's and Gordon Gekko and corporate raiders who focused on making companies do rights by its shareholders.....
The shareholder primacy had great impact over how big corporations were ran because before corporations expanded their facilities and equipment and invested in higher wages and better working conditions and job training for its workers. Also buybacks were legalized. Nowadays corporations typically employ drastic cost-cutting measures and dont train new workers and layoff or cut pay to drive up the share price and increase dividends. CEOs were paid a lot more because of the Friedman Doctrine and buybacks because they knew if they made enough cuts in jobs and salaries each quarter they could increase share prices which would increase their pay and its a viscious cycle. Many everyday Americans like teachers and other middle class workers have become millionaires through investing in the stock market. Investing in the stock market is open to almost anyone 18 or older.....You can even invest with only a dollar at a time if you want. I assume AI will increase layoffs drastically and that this excess money will be allocated to buybacks and dividends. I think we may need Universal Basic Income in the future.