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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (44491)	7/29/2010 3:33:08 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Sure: the post-war "American Miracle" with the emergence of the Middle Class. That isn't evidence for your statement. First of all its one time period, not many, and it describes a result of many policies, influences and actions not one. Its useless as evidence. Even ignoring those points and pretending it was useful, it isn't an example of a period with relative equality, and relatively rapid economic growth. It doesn't show in any way that if equality decreased from that point growth would have been slower or that if equality increased growth would have been faster. Many other cases have the opposite situation. Rapid economic growth leads to greater inequality. Look at Chine in modern times for example. Your example is only evidence that greater equality (than we have now) is not incompatible with higher economic growth. Not that it caused it, or made it more stable, or caused it to continue for a longer period of time. As for plutocratic societies, they are essentially irrelevant to the point under consideration. Plutocracy is rule by the rich, which is not the same as relatively unequal income or wealth levels. And if we are going to examine them, well relatively plutocratic societies in ancient or mid-evil times (or pretty much any times before the industrial revolution) had lower levels of growth because all societies (including the most equal) had lower levels of long term economic growth back then. The explosion of growth that occurred with the industrial revolution and later development occurred in the context of large disparities of wealth.

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (44491)	7/30/2010 5:52:00 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Sure: the post-war "American Miracle" Wasn't the period of our strongest economic growth. -------------- Economic growth The Gilded Age saw the greatest period of economic growth in American history. After the short-lived panic of 1873, the economy recovered with the advent of hard money policies and industrialization. From 1869 to 1879, the US economy grew at a rate of 6.8% for NNP (GDP minus capital depreciation) and 4.5% for NNP per capita, despite the panic of 1873.[7]The economy repeated this period of growth in the 1880's, in which the wealth of the nation grew at an annual rate of 3.8%, while the GDP was also doubled. Real wages also increased greatly during the 1880's.[8] Economist Milton Friedman states that for the 1880's: The highest decadal rate [of growth of real reproducible, tangible wealth per head from 1805 to 1950] for periods of about ten years was apparently reached in the eighties with approximately 3.8 percent.[9]" Austrian Economist and scholar Murray Rothbard stated that for the 1880's: Gross domestic product almost doubled from the decade before, a far larger percentage jump decade-on-decade than any time since.[9] Capital investment also increased tremondously during the 1880's, increasing nearly 500%, while capital formation doubled during the decade. Rothbard states that: This massive 500-percent decade-on-decade increase has never since been even closely rivaled. It stands in particular contrast to the virtual stagnation witnessed by the 1970s.[10] Long-term interest rates also declined to 3 to 3.5% for the first time, reaching the same level as Britain and 17th century Holland.[11] en.wikipedia.org