Quote:
Originally Posted by afc wimbledon
150 years ago there was effectively no middle class, just rich and poor, the reason we live as well as we do is because of the system, not despite it.
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This is not entirely accurate, as much as it pains me to admit it.
I'm as anti-union as they come, but the reason we live as well as we do today isn't because of the system but largely because of victories won by organized labour
against the system in the post-war years. Things the middle class take for granted today, like company benefits, pensions, cost-of-living salary increases, etc., came about largely because of the successes of unions in the 1940s and 50s. As many graphs posted in this thread have shown, that era saw the middle class make rapid gains in their share of overall wealth and the gap between the rich and other classes was much lower than it was either pre-Great Depression or post-Reaganomics.
The rise of the middle class didn't happen because of altruism on the part of the corporate masters. In fact, the ideal world for the 1% is a return to the robber baron era of the 1880s, rolling back the New Deal and other programs and benefits (both government and corporate) that salaried workers -- either unionized or not -- depend upon.
I hate unions in their modern form as much as anyone, but I don't deny their historic significance and the benefits today's middle class owe to them.