Requiem for the American Dream

But in the United States, you have a very high degree of freedom. 305 00:26:07,706 --> 00:26:11,307 So, if you're vilified by some commissars, then who cares? 306 00:26:11,309 --> 00:26:13,642 You go on, you do your work anyway. 307 00:26:13,644 --> 00:26:18,947 These concepts only arise in a culture where, if you criticize 308 00:26:18,949 --> 00:26:22,717 state power, and by state, I mean... 309 00:26:22,719 --> 00:26:26,287 More generally not just government but state corporate power, 310 00:26:26,289 --> 00:26:29,823 if you criticize concentrated power, you're against the society, 311 00:26:29,825 --> 00:26:34,894 that's quite striking that it's used in the United States. 312 00:26:34,896 --> 00:26:38,264 In fact, as far as I know, it's the only Democratic society 313 00:26:38,266 --> 00:26:41,133 where the concept isn't just ridiculed. 314 00:26:41,135 --> 00:26:47,906 It's a sign of elements of the elite culture, which are quite ugly. 315 00:27:29,247 --> 00:27:35,317 The American dream, like many ideals, was partly symbolic, but partly real. 316 00:27:35,319 --> 00:27:41,255 So in the 1950s and 60s, say, there was the biggest growth period 317 00:27:41,257 --> 00:27:44,157 in American economic history. 318 00:27:47,361 --> 00:27:48,894 The golden age. 319 00:27:52,665 --> 00:27:55,967 It was pretty egalitarian growth, 320 00:27:55,969 --> 00:28:00,704 so the lowest fifth of the population was improving about as much as the upper fifth. 321 00:28:02,339 --> 00:28:04,840 And there were some welfare state measures, 322 00:28:04,842 --> 00:28:08,710 which improved life for much the population. 323 00:28:08,712 --> 00:28:13,281 It was, for example, possible for a black worker 324 00:28:13,283 --> 00:28:16,817 to get a decent job in an auto plant, 325 00:28:16,819 --> 00:28:21,687 buy a home, get a car, have his children go to school and so on. 326 00:28:21,689 --> 00:28:23,221 And the same across the board. 327 00:28:26,692 --> 00:28:31,429 When the U.S. was primarily a manufacturing center, 328 00:28:31,431 --> 00:28:36,267 it had to be concerned with its own consumers... here. 329 00:28:36,269 --> 00:28:43,173 Famously, Henry Ford raised the salary of his workers so they'd be able to buy cars. 330 00:28:46,210 --> 00:28:50,813 When you're moving into an international "plutonomy," 331 00:28:50,815 --> 00:28:52,981 as the banks like to call it... 332 00:28:52,983 --> 00:28:59,053 The small percentage of the world's population that's gathering increasing wealth... 333 00:28:59,055 --> 00:29:02,890 What happens to American consumers is much less a concern, 334 00:29:02,892 --> 00:29:05,792 because most of them aren't going to be consuming your products anyway, 335 00:29:05,794 --> 00:29:08,194 at least not on a major basis. 336 00:29:08,196 --> 00:29:11,163 Your goals are, profit in the next quarter, 337 00:29:11,165 --> 00:29:15,300 even if it's based on financial manipulations... 338 00:29:15,302 --> 00:29:17,101 High salary, high bonuses, 339 00:29:17,103 --> 00:29:19,436 produce overseas if you have to, 340 00:29:19,438 --> 00:29:24,907 and produce for the wealthy classes here and their counterparts abroad. 341 00:29:24,909 --> 00:29:26,241 What about the rest? 342 00:29:26,243 --> 00:29:29,210 Well, there's a term coming into use for them, too. 343 00:29:29,212 --> 00:29:31,979 They're called the "precariat"... 344 00:29:31,981 --> 00:29:34,481 Precarious proletariat... 345 00:29:34,483 --> 00:29:38,818 The working people of the world who live increasingly precarious lives. 346 00:29:41,021 --> 00:29:43,822 And it's related to the attitude toward the country altogether. 347 00:29:48,994 --> 00:29:53,197 During the period of great growth of the economy... 348 00:29:53,199 --> 00:29:55,866 The '50s and the '60s, but in fact, earlier... 349 00:29:55,868 --> 00:29:59,870 Taxes on the wealthy were far higher. 350 00:29:59,872 --> 00:30:02,372 Corporate taxes were much higher, 351 00:30:02,374 --> 00:30:04,941 taxes on dividends were much higher... 352 00:30:04,943 --> 00:30:07,810 Simply taxes on wealth were much higher. 353 00:30:07,812 --> 00:30:10,746 The tax system has been redesigned, 354 00:30:10,748 --> 00:30:16,118 so that the taxes that are paid by the very wealthy are reduced 355 00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:20,755 and, correspondingly, the tax burden on the rest of the population's increased. 356 00:30:34,135 --> 00:30:37,837 Now the shift is towards trying to keep taxes 357 00:30:37,839 --> 00:30:40,339 just on wages and on consumption... 358 00:30:40,341 --> 00:30:44,309 Which everyone has to do, not, say, on dividends, which only go to the rich. 359 00:30:48,814 --> 00:30:50,381 The numbers are pretty striking. 360 00:30:59,190 --> 00:31:02,425 Now, there's a pretext... O