Those who have finessed themselves into leadership positions in our present system of corporatism prefer to think of themselves as "capitalists". But the reality is that, since the turn of the millennium, the real, inflation adjusted return to those who have actually provided the capital (whether they be teacher pension funds, those who have invested through their IRA's, Keogh plans, qualified plans, or in non-tax-deferred accounts), has been miniscule.
Unlike today, in American capitalism in the 1950's and 60's, savers who provided capital for American industry shared in the benefits: Holders of savings accounts received interest a few percentage points over the rate of inflation. And borrowers were not charged 18-20% interest. In my own experience, when I applied for a personal loan at an Austin bank in the 1960's, I was charged 9% interest. Bankers actually made a living with an approximate 5% spread between what they paid depositors and what they charged those who took out loans (and depositors made a few points above inflation).
Today, even with CPI rigged to underestimate real inflation, depositors are paid a fraction of 1%, well less than inflation, and the banks charge credit card lenders with good credit perhaps 18-20+%. Their spread has increased (by a factor of 3 to 4) from ~5% to ~17-20%.
Yet,
those that actually "own" the banks (the teacher pension funds, the IRA & 401K savers, the small businesswoman with a Keogh or qualified plan, for example), even though they
provided the capital for the banking enterprise, have been making an inflation adjusted return close to zero.
Every one --- workers, consumers, and savers (the capitalist) who provide the capital for American corporatism --- has been getting the shaft except for those at the top: CEO compensation
has risen from 24 times average worker compensation to roughly 262 times average worker compensation, even as many of these CEO's were running their businesses into the ground.
So now we learn that start-ups by entrepreneurs are thriving in "socialist" Scandinavia, even as incompetent pirates in the boardrooms of American corporations pay themselves unprecedented compensation, while seeing to it that the average Americans whose pension funds supply the capital receive less than the rate of inflation, and their workers receive ever lower wages (if they are not cheated out of their pension by a vulture capitalist scam).
It would appear that Norwegian "socialism" is actually a more fertile ground for entrepreneurs, and for genuine capitalism, than is to be found in the fetid boardrooms of degenerate corporatism.
= new reply since forum marked as read