La avaricia siempre rompe el saco

En un artículo de opinión de Robert Reich, ex secretario de Trabajo en la administración Clinton, publicado en The Washington Post, hemos encontrado un párrafo que nos ha llamado extraordinariamente la atención;

“According to researchers Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, since the late 1970s, a greater and greater share of national income has gone to people at the top of the earnings ladder. As late as 1976, the richest 1% of the country took home about 9% of the total national income. By 2006, they were pocketing more than 20%. But the rich don’t spend as much of their income as the middle class and the poor do — after all, being rich means that you already have most of what you need. That’s why the concentration of income at the top can lead to a big shortfall in overall demand and send the economy into a tailspin. (It’s not coincidental that 1928 was the last time that the top 1% took home more than 20% of the nation’s income.)”

Según Reich los problemas estructurales de la economía americana (y del capitalismo actual) se remontan a los 70. Uno de ellos nos resulta especialmente curioso y relevante: el estancamiento de los salarios, que obligó primero a las mujeres a trabajar para mantener el nivel de vida, luego a aumentar las horas de trabajo y finalmente a endeudarse a todo el mundo para conseguirlo. Hasta que la burbuja inmobiliaria estalló y la gente ya no pudo cargar con su deuda.