In What Sense Is the Economy “Rigged?”

What has happened to the economy over the past half century?  Well, here are a number of things that are provable:

Almost all new wealth has wound up in the hands of the top 1%, which has driven the demand for all good things like real estate and quality higher education. This means higher prices, given that the supply is relatively fixed.

The wealthiest Americans now have an ironclad grasp on Congress; our laws are made and passed entirely at the behest of rich donors.

Anyone who believes that wealthy people would use their riches to hire more employees or pay them more than necessary is a fool.

Jobs have been lost to automation and offshoring.

In addition, there several damaging aspects of corporate greed that has grown exponentially.  In particular, it’s:

Put pressure on employees’ salaries and bonuses.

Translated into dishonesty, making harder to behave honorably in the workplace.

Crushed millions of of small, “mom and pop” operations.

At the same we have the dumbing down of the population, making us increasingly incapable of competing on world stage, and understanding that we’ve elected a sociopathic conman to lead us.