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Originally Posted by Bilge_Rat
all very good points Aramike.
Another issue is the dynamic nature of the now worldwide economy.
In 1945, with most of Europe and Asia basically in ruins, the USA was by far the biggest industrialised state and american workers were able to demand higher wages which employers had no choice but to pay.
In 2010, highly skilled workers in the USA are now competing with workers in China and India that can do the same work for 1/10th the pay. I even read an article recently that big US law firms are starting to farm out certain legal work to law firms in India. That puts a downward pressure on all wages around the world.
Governments are very limited in their ability to intervene since capital is now highly mobile and will move to the country with the lowest wages, lowest taxes, etc.
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That's an excellent point.
My biggest fear is that we're moving more and more towards a service-based economy where your average American's value is far more derived from what we do for each other than what tangible good we provide to each other. I'll elaborate more on what I mean by this later, but in general my point is that when you produce a good, that good retains some value and can often be sold. When you provide a service, that service's value is generally completely lost upon its conclusion.
A service based economy has little ability to retain value, thus my fear.