I am a true believer in celebrating laborers in our society and inn the world economy. We have noting unless someone mines it, fabricates it, processes it or distributes it.  Yet in the economic system of capitalism as practiced in the US the people doing the work are generally among the lowest paid workers in our system. 

Why do we have this inequality and how long will it last. The inequality it has fostered is still near all time peaks. Such statistics usually portend a major upheaval. Yet somehow so far since the Bush 2 Republican we have managed to dodge the bullet of another major upheaval. Much of that was probably due to the Federal Reserve pumping money into the economy. 

Strangely in the past year a small amount of the inequality that has become a trade mark of the economy since Ronald Reagan has been made up as the US work force has been shrunk by an unexpected high number of deaths among those in the work force AND a decision by others in the work force to stay out of the work force for various reasons (eg – caring for their children).

I searched for a couple of good videos that could really explain the inequality in our system. Thus I searched for a couple of my favorite gurus on labor and economy – Paul Krugman and Robert Reich. Both are in interviews by Bill Moyers from Moyers old PBS series Moyers & Company. 

Both conversations took place around the time that Thomas Picketty’s book “Capitalism In The 21st Century” came out to loud acclaim.

First is a 20 minute conversation with Paul Krugman that took place in 2014. It is amazing how accurate Krugman is about what is happening and what will happen:

Stay tuned for Moyers comments in the final 4 minutes.