Economist John Kenneth Galbraith had an interesting theory. He noted that our economy follows 80 year cycles. He believed that the oligarchs would crash the economy and the people naturally rise up and demand reform. Like Teddy Roosevelt before him, in the wake of the excesses of the Great Depression, FDR had a mandate from the American population to initiate a series of reforms, re-regulation of banks, dissolution of monopolies, stronger worker rights and a strengthening of the social safety net to name a few.
Galbraith observed that when the American generation most directly affected by an economic collapse dies out over a 40 year period, the replacement generation was ripe to fall for the deregulation of banks, weakening of anti-trust action, marginalization of worker rights and a weakening of the social safety net ideology. We witnessed the second 40 year oligarch power grab starting with Reagan and culminating in the most recent economic collapse. Galbraith plots these 80 year cycles throughout American history.
The question I proffer to you, the people is: Has special interest money so corrupted our government that the promise of a rebirth of a nation after an economic collapse been denied the people for the first time in our history ? This time the banks have carried on without missing a beat, monopolies are continuing to grow, worker pay and rights have not rebounded and the social safety net is being disassembled before our eyes. In other words, as Galbraith pointed out, money has always won it's fair share of the battles, but, has money won the war this time around ?
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