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I think capitalism doesn?t work without the poor. There are even big ones that need illegal immigrants. A lot of industries are based on cheap workers. If you pay them enough to not be poor, everything would cost more so most people buy less goods and services.
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Henry Ford changed that paradigm. Before the model T, cars could only be afforded by the rich. Ford realized if he paid his workers enough (five dollars a day) they could afford to buy his cars. This set the stage for the development of the American middle class that prospered for many years. We built all the things we wanted, cars, radios, tv sets, whatever. Workers were reasonably well paid. We could buy modest houses and a car to get to work.
Everything started to change when we began to import major items like tv sets and cars. This put increasing pressure on the blue collar part of the middle class. Various types of welfare was established (ie food stamps, etc), government expanded dramatically. National debt exploded. Everything is imported. In the final years of our country, everyone is poor because the rich have moved away with all the money.