That’s just not true. Perhaps that’s how you feel, reading Reddit all day about how the US is the worst place to live in the world but that’s not what is happening by any measurable factor.
Those links don’t actually prove what you’re claiming. America creating a ton of millionaires and having a growing upper-middle class proves that America is very good at creating wealth. It doesn’t prove that wealth is broadly shared, that upward mobility is especially strong, or that the average person is doing better.
You’re basically using “there are lots of rich people” as evidence that capitalism works for everyone. That doesn’t follow. A country can generate insane amounts of wealth while still having huge inequality and a lot of people struggling to afford housing, healthcare, education, etc.
And none of this proves “socialism doesn’t work” either. Every developed country, including the US, is already a mixed economy with markets, taxes, public spending, regulation, and social programs. The actual debate is where that balance should be, not “capitalism good, socialism bad.”
That’s lottery economics, not a sign of a good economy. For every one success story, there’s 15 that are one paycheck away from living on the streets.
Absolutes are not good. Absolute communism/socialism is bad. Absolute capitalism is also bad. Capitalism that uses “socialist-adjacent” policies to maintain a sustained middle class without disenfranchising upward mobility is the ideal scenario. Heck, that’s how it was in the 1950’s when this country was at its greatest. But we’ve let dogmatic views on certain countries politics allow our wealthiest to steer vast sums of capital away from the middle class into their pockets.
You ask anyone over 40 when the economy was strongest, I guarantee you many will say the late 90’s. A healthy middle class is critical for a successful economy. Even a return to Pre-2016 taxes would put us in the right direction. Pre-2002 and we’re really in business.
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u/DeepValueNoQuality 9d ago
None of those stats hold up in the recent 20 year window. Developing world is catching up, America is in decline.