Thoughts on life part 2

 The 70’s were an OK time to grow up as a kid. I say this because we did have some of the carefree child-rearing attitude left over from prior decades. Though I was not supposed to leave my block when I was young, I could stay out the entire day in the summertime, only returning home for lunch and supper until dark. We did have to start paying attention to stranger-danger and possible razor blades in the candy. If it wasn’t pre-packaged, Halloween candy was thrown away. There was always the exception of the little old lady with the apple tree in the backyard (was that from Mrs. Olsen? It’s ok then). I even remember the hospital near our house opening their X-ray room to inspect candy. This is not the sort of thing kids should have to worry about, but it started in the 70’s. 

The 70’ were also a time of mass layoffs in the pursuit of profits. Unions began their decline. The middle class started shifting from upper to lower in the 70’s. We did not really know the downhill trajectory started and would not for 20+ years. The lower and middle class just started suffering under this new-found corporate power. Then Ronald Reagan got elected and the economic situation for most of the working class went from downward trajectory to race to the bottom in a matter of 10 years. 

Reagan took a relatively balanced economy and did two actions that still reverberate to this day: Breaking the air traffic controllers strike and cutting the top tax rates in half. The first accelerated the decline of Unions. Unions, and to a minor extent Co-ops, give the workers for the company power in how productivity is divided in the company. This allows the workers to negotiate a better standard of living than they would otherwise receive. A company is formed, after all, with the top goal of making profit. There are companies that follow a more egalitarian or even noble vision, but profits do matter, even to those companies. CEO pay during this time exploded. Board of corporations, desperate to get the best CEO “talent”, would hand over contrast that made them wealthy, often at the expense of the company. Take the concept of stock options. For a CEO, this is probably the single best part of any contract. Since options are purchased at the lowest value then can be sold at the highest, the CEO has an easy pathways to make that happen.