Please listen. I know y'all do not care about economic history, but this is important.
*sighs* Okay. Look. I know nobody fucking cares about economic history and stuff. But I think here is one thing that all leftists should kinda know.
See, here is the thing: Yes, I am an anarcho-communist, BUT... before we stay in laissez faire capitalism, which is OBVIOUSLY NOT WORKING I would much prefer to go back to the Keynesian economics, which did work and gave us several "economic miracles".
So, let me do a very quick history lesson:
In the early 20th century, there was this guy called Keynes. And he was an economist. And he invented an economic theory that basically said: "Capitalism can only work, if the government has a certain amount of control over it and helps to redistribute the money in a way that it does not all end up at the top. Because once that happens, the economy will fail." Basically, to explain it simply: The very rich people have no reason to spend more money. Say a billionaire has like 10 billion (mind you, obviously they still do not actually have that money, but just lets assume they have) and is spending 200 000 a day. Even if you given them tax cuts so they will have 15 billion, they are not gonna spend more than the 200 000 a day. The money will just collect on their accounts, so to speak. It will not flow into the economy.
However, the poor person, who just somehow makes ends meet... If you give them more money, they are way more likely to actually spend it. They might get that new washing machine they actually have needed for years now and could not afford. Or heck, even if they do not need something, they might actually take the vacation they could not go on for years.
Which is why Keynes said, that the government should tax the rich, and basically redistribute that money back to the poor, to keep the economy running.
In fact, Keynes, in the 1930s, already predicted the thing we see now: A lot of stuff can will at some point be automated and there will not be enough jobs for everyone. So, what was the solution he came up with? Universal Basic Income. Yes, he named it differently, but it just that. He was like: "Yeah, actually, if we can automate everything that is actually gonna be amazing. We will just tax the companies for every automated away job, and then the people can get that money from the state and live an untroubled life."
And this was generally the system that was used by pretty much all capitalist countries until the late-70s and early-80s, in some places until the 90s even.
Why did it change?
Well, it is kinda Israel's fault. And yes, I know, this sounds like one of those antisemitic conspiracies. But it isn't. It was not because like Israel somehow plotted to destroy this system. It was just... Well. The Arab nations had several clashes with Israel after the western powers just decided Israel into existence. And then the Six-Day-War happened, which lead to Israel greatly gaining in territory. And why did little Israel win that? Of course, because they had American weapons for the most part.
The important thing though: They managed to capture the Suez Canal, and Egypt REALLY wanted to get that back. So they tried to negotiate with Israel over it. And Israel refused. Then Egypt tried to legally do stuff against it, and the US vetoed against it in the UN. And then... there was eventually another war in the early 70s. Which Israel once again won.
What does this have to do with Keynes?
Well, simple: the Arab nations were fucking annoyed with the US and their support for Israel. So at one point the United Arab Emirates said: "Fuck you, USA. If you support Israel both in the UN and with weapons, we will not trade with you anymore. You won't get our oil." And at the time the UAE were the biggest oil producer in the world. And this obviously meant one thing: The oil prices in the US exploded - and given how Americans even in the 70s could not live without their cars due to how car centric America was... Well, the economy took a really bad hit. Recession happened, and folks lost their jobs. And this was the moment that some folks - including Milton Friedman - who were of the opinion that you should totally stop taxing the rich saw their moment and started going to the president like: "Yeah, actually, this only happened because of Keynesian economics!" While back then the Ford and Carter administrations at least listened in so far to bring down some of the high earner taxes and cut some programs, that was obviously nothing in comparison to the asshole who then was super invested in hearing those ideas.
Reagan. Because it always comes back to Raegan.
Ironically, of course, the economy did recover during the Reagan years. But that had nothing to do with the new economic stuff - and all to do with the UAE lifting the embargo on oil, which took a couple of years to take hold again, but yeah. Then the economy got better. But not because of Reaganomics.
And now? Well, now most countries basically have Chicago School economics, with one exception: The military. The military is still run in a Keynesian way, because of course it is. Which is also why the stuff happening in Germany right now is called by some people "Keynesian Militarism".-
