The Twinkie Manifesto

New Krugman:

But the ’50s — the Twinkie Era — do offer lessons that remain relevant in the 21st century. Above all, the success of the postwar American economy demonstrates that, contrary to today’s conservative orthodoxy, you can have prosperity without demeaning workers and coddling the rich. 

And

Strange to say, however, the oppressed executives Fortune portrayed in 1955 didn’t go Galt and deprive the nation of their talents. On the contrary, if Fortune is to be believed, they were working harder than ever. And the high-tax, strong-union decades after World War II were in fact marked by spectacular, widely shared economic growth: nothing before or since has matched the doubling of median family income between 1947 and 1973.

More here.

Okay, yeah, I posted on exactly this topic, the liquidation of Hostess, just last night.  But I was simply making the point that it wasn't organized labor that caused the end of the confectionery corporation, but rather Wall Street assholes who would just as soon dine on a company's corpse as it would turn that company around.  Krugman, however, places the whole incident into the proper historical and economic context.

That is, this whole multi-decade shift we've undergone, from a society that allows the people on the ground who create America's prosperity to share its gains with the captains of industry, to a society that ever funnels that wealth toward the top, is simply not how things have to be.  It's not destiny.  It's not good for the economy, especially when you consider that, under the current arrangement, "the economy" means the rich, and only the rich.  Instead, it creates a shitty society, where the vast majority live in constant financial insecurity, while the wealthy live opulently.  

As Krugman says, "economic justice and economic growth aren’t incompatible."  And, I would add, a society without economic justice isn't much of a society at all.

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