What happened? : unions

[-] protist@mander.xyz 65 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

*some white families

Redlining continued to force black and brown people into less desirable parts of town even past the 50s. Many schools and public spaces were still legally segregated, and many banks wouldn't lend mortgages and employers wouldn't hire black or brown people

Car ownership rates were much lower then, as were college attendance rates. But yes, there were lots more good paying "blue collar" jobs with good benefits per capita due to the work of unions.

[-] rwhitisissle@lemmy.ml 30 points 9 months ago

Also it helps that Europe was completely fucking devastated by World War II and that the United States had more factories than everyone else combined and was outside of bomber range. We dominated the world economy afterwards for literal decades because of that. What we're seeing in the late 20th century/early 21st century isn't some fantastical economic decline solely attributable to policy decisions or the war on organized labor (although it's a contributor) - it's rebalancing.

[-] protist@mander.xyz 15 points 9 months ago

I'm going to say policies and decisions by executives to move jobs overseas actually had a ton to do with it. I also disagree that it's a rebalancing because this is not a zero-sum game, meaning the US does not have to give up prosperity for another country to gain prosperity.

[-] rwhitisissle@lemmy.ml 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

No, but the US had greater prosperity because of an unfortunate event that reduced the prosperity of other nations and which afforded a particular set of unique economic opportunities. It's very easy for your average schmuck to get a bigger piece of the pie when the pie is simply bigger for a little while.

Also, those jobs were always going to be exported as soon as it became economically viable to do so. That decision as never not going to be made. If you want to address the root cause of American economic inequality or job loss, you can point to capitalism's need for constant growth as the root cause. But don't ignore the historical realities of America's post-war boom economy in order to fantasize it as some mythical "lost economic golden age."

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

Off shoring jobs wasn't at all a foregone conclusion. One measure some countries take that we don't is to tax any company that uses too much foreign labor as a foreign company. Instead we drank that globalism kool-aid.

[-] protist@mander.xyz 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

...are you talking to me? Where am I fantasizing this "as some mythical 'lost economic golden age?'" I'm here pointing out that the 50s actually sucked really hard for a lot of Americans who were not middle or upper class white people

I'll add though that America's "pie" is much, much larger today than it was in the 50s, so saying it was easy to have more of the pie back then because it was bigger is false

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

You're right that it isn't a 0-sum game, but people in power in the US have always treated it as one.

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

There was always going to be a slump as the rest of the world came back. But we have done many stupid things to accelerate it and hurt workers more than what would happen naturally.

[-] GBU_28@lemm.ee -3 points 9 months ago

Yes of course, but the "default" family unit has access to what the meme describes

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 35 points 9 months ago

Well since 1974 the median wage has lost to inflation by about 130 percentage points. That's inflation increasing more than wages by a few points every year.

So if all the prices go up while wages stagnate I'd have to say we all decided to just let the wealthy fuck us over. Better poor than union I guess.

[-] NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.world 24 points 9 months ago

The girls seem to be waving to the neighbor down the street...

[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

She's waving to her daddy, the milkman.

[-] htrayl@lemmy.world 20 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Homes have increased their size by 300%+ since 1950 and the cost per square foot has remained relatively constant. We simply don't build enough smaller homes - they only exist on fringe and in urban centers where there the property costs increase the overall cost.

Edit: Also our overreliance on cars has only skyrocketed. More cars per household, more miles driven. When you are required to spend 20-30% of your income on a vehicle, homeownership gets harder.

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago

There are zero starter homes near the city where I live. None. Any homes that would have traditionally been starter homes - 1 or 2 bedrooms, small size, 1 bathroom - are all in desirable, heavily gentrified areas, and cost almost a million dollars. Coincidentally, all of those homes were built in the 50's and 60's when homes were affordable. Anything new that they build is an enormous box with no land, marketed as a mansionette, or a luxury condo (aka small box with no windows and shared walls). You have to move at least 45 minutes outside of the city to get under a half million dollars.

[-] Pat_Riot@lemmy.today 18 points 9 months ago

Those family's children grew up to be greedy assholes. That's what happened.

[-] Roopappy@lemmy.ml 13 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Deregulation of markets and industries and weakening of social programs. Overall making the power of large corporations and a small number of wealthy people way more than the power of huge numbers of average people.

All completely supported and promoted by the people who benefited from the opposite.

[-] Pat_Riot@lemmy.today 1 points 9 months ago

It's funny how we're both talking about the same generation of privileged children who grew up to be greedy assholes. If you can't see it then you are probably one of them.

[-] Roopappy@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 months ago

It sounds like you're making an angry accusation about me, but I was definitely agreeing with you, so I don't understand why.

[-] Pat_Riot@lemmy.today 1 points 9 months ago

I may have misunderstood. It had initially seemed to me that you were sideways defending the boomers. I apologize.

[-] Telodzrum@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago

It’s not just unions and real wages going down. This is essentially the entire question that caused Elizabeth Warren and her daughter to write The Two Income Trap. It’s a wonderful book written by two very accomplished students of American personal finance and bankruptcy. The truth is much more insidious than just being caused by a drop in per capita union membership.

[-] magnetosphere@kbin.social 8 points 9 months ago

Why is he opening the passenger side door? Is he giving a ride to his invisible pal?

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Carpooling maybe.

[-] magnetosphere@kbin.social 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

“Why are you waving goodbye, sweetie? You know daddy’s too big to fit down that mine shaft. Come on. I’ll be right in the manager’s office if you need me.”

[-] Godric@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

That's a really cool point, is there a source to back it up? I don't take my views from Twitter screenshots.

[-] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 24 points 9 months ago

Union membership peaked in the 1950s at one-third of the workforce. At that time, despite pervasive racial and gender discrimination, overall income inequality was close to its lowest level since its peak before the Great Depression, and was continuing to fall.
US Treasury

[-] Godric@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Thank you very much, interesting read!

[-] n3m37h@sh.itjust.works 6 points 9 months ago

Greed, greed happened

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Sure thing. A generation of people decided that they got theirs and pulled up the ladder behind them. Worse: that same generation screwed itself over since Boomers are the population most likely to enter into homelessness and people 75+ are the most likely to enter the job market now.

[+] Anticorp@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

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