When Nixon took the $USD off the gold standard, it freed up the Fed to print with wild abandon. Life for the middle & working classes has been all downhill ever since.
When Nixon took the $USD off the gold standard, it freed up the Fed to print with wild abandon. Life for the middle & working classes has been all downhill ever since.
Let’s just exclude the fact that what really happened was the rest of the world finally recovering from WWII. Even then, once global labor became cheaper and accessible, the US stopped being the only major supplier of manufactured goods. Globalization and technology let companies move production and replace labor, which weakened worker bargaining power and pushed wages down. At the same time unions declined, productivity gains went to owners instead of workers, and costs like housing, healthcare, and education kept rising. A high school degree did not suddenly lose value, the labor market around it changed. The entire gold standard argument is retarded once you actually start to frame the discussion around the reality of what actually happened. Even if the US had stayed on the gold standard it wouldn’t have changed any of this and introduced even more issues.
unkorrupted on
Or you voted for politicians who gutted worker rights, refused to raise minium wage, and weakened unions… while giving tax cuts to the wealthy and raising tax on workers to cover some of the difference.
Inflation existed prior to, and during this era you refer to. In fact the highest years for inflation in US history are under the gold standard.
Anyway, this post is exactly the kind of misinformation that keeps people from understanding and ensures they’re acting against their own interests.
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Gold standard wasn’t good.
Let’s just exclude the fact that what really happened was the rest of the world finally recovering from WWII. Even then, once global labor became cheaper and accessible, the US stopped being the only major supplier of manufactured goods. Globalization and technology let companies move production and replace labor, which weakened worker bargaining power and pushed wages down. At the same time unions declined, productivity gains went to owners instead of workers, and costs like housing, healthcare, and education kept rising. A high school degree did not suddenly lose value, the labor market around it changed. The entire gold standard argument is retarded once you actually start to frame the discussion around the reality of what actually happened. Even if the US had stayed on the gold standard it wouldn’t have changed any of this and introduced even more issues.
Or you voted for politicians who gutted worker rights, refused to raise minium wage, and weakened unions… while giving tax cuts to the wealthy and raising tax on workers to cover some of the difference.
Inflation existed prior to, and during this era you refer to. In fact the highest years for inflation in US history are under the gold standard.
Anyway, this post is exactly the kind of misinformation that keeps people from understanding and ensures they’re acting against their own interests.