• therealdries@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    A racialised socio-economic buffer in-between liberal elites and the underclasses was the whole point of the creation of the (so-called) “middle class” through Keynesian economics - that’s really what the “New Deal” (in the US) and Apartheid-era economic policies in South Africa was all about. By giving a relatively small (and white) section of the working class a small taste of private property they’d become invested in the colonialist liberal economic order, and it was pretty successful too - it’s the reason why boomers are the way they are.

    However, now that Keynesian liberalism has inevitably degraded into neoliberalism (which is really an inevitable process) that pretend-social contract is essentially in tatters - so I guess all bets are off.

    • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Nitpick: the USA didn’t adopt Keynesian monetary policy until after the Nixon Shock, as a post hoc rationale. Keynes helped destroy the middle class, not to create it.

      • therealdries@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 day ago

        That’s true, but I’m not talking about monetary policy - I’m referring to post-WW2 state interventionism in the economy to prevent post-WW1-style revolutionary upheaval.