There are a few good ML parties, I’m in one of them, but there are materialist reasons why communism isn’t popular in the imperial core. Even though poverty is fairly widespread, its still largely a parasitic country that’s mostly just consumer services, with little domestic industry left. Its median wages are still ~ 12x PPP-adjusted that of the average non-OECD worker. Most of its population is employed by the defense industry, retail, transportation, and medicine, most of those not being direct commodity production, which has implications for organizing.
Individualism is in its DNA, from the way its neighborhoods and streets are structured, to its religion, sports, media, to the promise it offers to people who choose to become US citizens.
The labor movement in the US had its height in the late 1800s-1930s, and it pretty much died by the 1970s and hasn’t recovered since. Books like “divided world divided class” get into this in more detail.
Well those are some unfortunate numbers. Isn’t there an actual marxist party that is having a decent start? Or are they not that serious?
There are a few good ML parties, I’m in one of them, but there are materialist reasons why communism isn’t popular in the imperial core. Even though poverty is fairly widespread, its still largely a parasitic country that’s mostly just consumer services, with little domestic industry left. Its median wages are still ~ 12x PPP-adjusted that of the average non-OECD worker. Most of its population is employed by the defense industry, retail, transportation, and medicine, most of those not being direct commodity production, which has implications for organizing.
Individualism is in its DNA, from the way its neighborhoods and streets are structured, to its religion, sports, media, to the promise it offers to people who choose to become US citizens.
The labor movement in the US had its height in the late 1800s-1930s, and it pretty much died by the 1970s and hasn’t recovered since. Books like “divided world divided class” get into this in more detail.