How low should the Average American Income be?

[malthaussen]

46. Sure, but who says the ruling class are capitalists?

Capitalism is the religion of choice for the ruling class because it gets them what they want with the greatest efficiency, but I wonder how many true believers there really are (more than zero, agreed). If a system could be created that would allow them to grind the faces of the masses even more, they'd be all over it. I believe that schadenfreude is a much greater motivator than most people think.

In the absence of such a system, though, the next-best choice would be to relocate markets to areas where more profit can be extracted because labor costs are cheaper. As for the former markets, they can atrophy because the consumer goods can be marketed elsewhere. This has an extra benefit in terms of schadenfreude, because now one can have the pleasure of seeing the uppity lower classes squirm as their means are taken from them.

If you find this far-fetched, just think of how angry it makes the mouthpieces of the ruling class that 97% of Americans have refrigerators and telephones.

-- Mal