Capitalism and Labor, Boring Essential Stuff

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What never comes out in the stories about capitalism, is the source of, and the quality of, the labor pool it is helplessly dependent on. Take away workers and the whole thing falls apart. What makes rich people rich is organizing work for workers, and paying them as little as is possible to keep them from running elsewhere. Done to excess, paying little as possible screws everybody.

Capitalists pay very little attention to the fact that society and government have an awful lot to do with providing them with workers of intelligence, honesty, training, and general moral character. If they did pay attention to such things, then Kaiser Hospitals or better would be the norm, not the exceptional story. The current concentration of wealth, 20% of USA owned by less than 1% of the people, up from 8% in 1980, is a recipe for disaster. Call it trickle down, but when it only trickles UP, the country is washed away.