I’ve often wondered if this is a fundamental property of capitalism, or “just” our current implementation of it. But certainly current monetary policies reward liquidity over value creation. Which I suppose is to say that they value extraction over cultivation.
I think it’s capitalism, but in the postwar period, there was something of an expansion of democracy, and greater demands for either socialist policies or for greater regulation of the worst aspects of capitalism. The capitalists have fought back against that since the 1970s… but you can see lots of this stuff in Marx’s works.
This sounds like the premise behind Glasshouse, except that was mostly set in an approximate re-enactment of 1950-2000s conservative small town America in a repurposed 27th century military prison ship.
Lots and lots and lots of exactly this! Post-war liberal democratic government was crucially instrumental in the democratization of prosperity.
Adam Smith’s vision of the Invisible Hand included the seldom acknowledged assumption that individuals would follow their enlightened self interest. Enlightenment is becoming scarce though . . .
Too many capital owners seem to quickly devolve toward just short term greed. And much of the rest of the populace gradually (and increasingly) follows into the same greed.
And a strong dash of this. Neoliberalism has steadily set about proving Marx and Lenin right.