Text of Ken [Complete]

Class Structures of the United States

While some organizations such as SEIU are working independently to organize themselves globally (Mayerson 2007), other groups like the A.F.L.-C.I.O. have been working adamantly from the start to fight against any sort of international trade agreements (Lowrey 2014). But what is a failure, on both the part of Capitalists and Unions at the moment in the US, is that both these models of economics only benefit the whole of the nation only if that nation is industrialized. Even the most extreme examples, such as Karl Marx and von Mises, rely on industrial production as the economic system their theories are built upon. But the United States is no longer an industrialized nation. As much as we wish we were and believe that we could be again, the truth is that is not going to happen anymore then we could return to being a purely horticultural society.

Just as humans moved from horticulture to agriculture, and agriculture to industrialism, we must someday soon move from industrialism to post industrialism, which is a whole new type of economy. But what does a post industrial economy do? If one is a capitalist, one does what one always when one is a capitalist, make money. To do that, one moves away from manufacturing or even simple retail and services, and participates in portfolio investment. As (Zweig 2011) puts it, "In 1975, cross-border investments in stocks and bonds by U.S. investors were 4 percent of the GDP ... By 1980, they had more than doubled, to 9 percent. By 1997, these U.S. portfolio investments abroad exploded to 213 percent of the GDP. Between 1997 and 2009, U.S. direct investment abroad grew nearly fourfold, but portfolio investments grew more than fivefold." In other words, the capitalists have turned the US domestic economy into a high stakes game of musical chairs and the only people who get left without a chair is the US taxpayer, as we saw in the market crash and subsequent bailout in 2008.

When the jobs creators aren't creating jobs because creating jobs isn't profitable, what are the rest of the classes in society supposed to do? For the Middle Class, they seem to be in the "wait it out" game. Some are successful in that strategy, for now. Other become overwhelmed with the amount of debt needed to maintain a Middle Class life style and revert to migrating to the working class. This displaces the working class, moving them into the underclass. As the underclass grows, so do the wild shifts into political socialism. While capitalism has been successful at figuring out ways to more efficiently make money be reducing or even eliminating the cost of labor, it has failed to provide economic security for the average American household.

This leaves the question of what exactly is the purpose of an economy? If the purpose of an economy is to increase the GDP or find the most efficient means of generating profits, then capitalism has been wildly successful. If it is to provide wealth and security for the American people, then it is a complete failure that seems to be. If anything, our current economic model is having a negative change in the well-being of the working class American. Capitalists continue to argue that innovation will lead to more jobs in technology and creative, but the data to support that idea just isn't there. What was true of the transition to the industrial economy won't necessarily hold true in the post-industrial economy. Remember in the transition from agriculture to an industrialized economy, people went from growing food primarily for personal consumption, to working to earn money and profits. What will we replace earning money with in this new economy?

Very few are speaking about this issue. Capitalist Nick Hanauer is one person who is. (Hanauer 2012) came under scrutiny for saying at a TED talk that, "hiring more people is a course of last resort for capitalist. This is what we do if and only if rising consumer demand requires it ... if it was true that tax cuts and more wealth for the wealthy lead to job creation, today we would be drowning in jobs." So if capitalists don't create jobs and they don't pay taxes, then what is the point of having the Capitalist Class from the perspective of any other class? Simple to have the hope that we may one day get the very slim chance to be one? Is that really enough justification for the huge benefit they receive from society?

So if we are able to wrap our brains around the concept that our old economy serves no purpose, then we are left in a position where we have an opportunity to choose our new economy. This is where we stand today. Our nation is mostly divided in to left-right economic ideologies. Do we want an economy where competitive markets dictate morals or morals dictate the abilities of the competitive market? Do we fully embrace Mainstream Economic Theory in which we are all in the capitalist class, ruling over other nations going through the industrialization process with economic imperialism? Or do we extend "childhood" and remain students until the age of thirty-five when we have finally acquired the skills needed to maintain a middle class lifestyle in the highly technical nature of the post industrial economy? Or do we abandon the concept of "earning a living" all together and start doing things just because they need to be done and not because it is what provides us a paycheck? If we are to be successful as a whole nation and not merely individuals, it will most likely take a marriage of all these ideas.

No matter what we choose, it is going to require casting aside old ideas. If we continue to be distracted by issues like race, gender, and others, we will continue to miss the underlying problems. If we only treat people as having no value other than their ability to generate an income, we will create a society that isn't worth saving. Unions have their place, but are dying along with the industrial age. Unions require the ability to strike in order to their legal muscles. One cannot strike if one does not have a job. If the capitalist class isn't willing to take on social equality voluntarily as they continue to promise, then it will be required to solve the problem through the political process. If the political process fails to bring about the necessary changes, then it will be the duty of the American people to change the political process.

Resources

Jennifer Burns (2009). Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right. Oxford University Press. pp. 106, 141.

Conwell, W. (2015, July 13). Globalization, Capitalism, and Power. Lecture conducted from Indiana University, .

Dow Jones Industrial Average. (n.d.). Retrieved July 19, 2015.

Hanauer, N. (2012, May 17). Banned TED Talk: Nick Hanauer "Rich people don't create jobs" Retrieved July 20, 2015.

Lowrey, A. (2014, March 27). Nafta Still Bedevils Unions. Retrieved July 19, 2015

Meyerson, H. (2007, April 26). Unions Gone Global. Retrieved July 19, 2015.

Reich, R. (2014, June 30). The Politics and Economics of Inequality. Retrieved July 19, 2015.

Uchitelle, L. (2004, April 10). Maybe It's Time For Another New Deal. Retrieved July 18, 2015.

Zweig, Michael (2011, November 22). The Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret, Second Edition (Kindle Locations 139-3360). Cornell University Press. Kindle Edition.