I’ve been saying this for years: The US economy is not “growing” not because we’re making more and better products, but because we’re commercializing social support systems that we used to get at low cost, or for free, from our families, relatives and neighbors: Health care, child care elder care, live-at-home spouses and homemakers, even talking with your neighbors and friends has been replaced with social media.
The cost of birthing and raising a child is even commodified in the health care system.
Is it any wonder why wealthy countries’ birthrates are falling? Asides from environmental factors, like microplastics and climate change.
The reasons why the US population is growing are related to immigration: Both directly counting immigrants, and those who still retain enough social capital in their communities to have families.
The so called post-capitalism economy is not productivity growth and making lives better for everyone.
It’s making the production of wealth increasingly meaningless for the average person.
It’s mining social and middle class wealth into the pockets of the wealthy elite and non-human corporations.
But what happens when the wealth in the mines is all gone?