There is a lot of back and forth on the blogs these days about what should or should or be done about the economy, jobs, the financial industry and what not. Some pointing to the president others to congress but most to each other. The problem with all of this is that most of the arguments are based on a premise that assumes a few fundamental myths but ignores some basic facts.

The main one being that the prosperity of the white middle class could be improved if only - pick one - the banks were better regulated, we had more green technology, jobs were not being outsourced....... All noble ideas in and of themselves but hardly the crux of the problem.

I put white middle class in italics because this prosperity that so many remember, including this author, was enjoyed almost exclusively by white middle class American males. Those below economically, women and minorities generally did not get included. And yet if one looks at the income, adjusted for inflation, it was not all that high. All the same families like my own where my father was a High School teacher could afford a new car every year, a nice house, current techno-toys and a nice summer vacation. All with out credit cards or going deeply into debt some other way. How could this be so ?

After doing some digging and remembering it became more clear. The amount of spendable income after the necessities such as food, clothing, housing and transportation - was significantly greater. The percentage of ones income spent on the basics was much lower. Gas was around 19 cents a gallon, a new car was around $3000.00 for a nice one, a rib roast was 29 cents a pound. You get the idea. Most things were dirt cheap comparatively speaking. But why ? And why so much more now ? Allowing for inflation of course.

Well for one thing all this nice stuff was almost exclusively available only to white middle class and up males. Interest rates were low because loans and credit for housing, transportation and other higher priced articles simply were not given to minorities, women and/or those in the lower income brackets. White males could get credit in the TV store and car lot but not blacks, Latinos, women or other undesirables. For another thing wages and jobs that paid well were only given to white males and yes white middle or above males at that. Women, if by some chance did get a job other that teaching, nursing or secretarial - got paid much less than their male counter parts. Minorities nearly never got those kinds of jobs. And farm workers - primarily those that harvested the crops - got paid nearly nothing.

So business overhead was very low indeed. Which translated into low prices. Add to that all the defense spending that came to nearly every major corporation and prices could be low and profits still fairly high. Health care was low for similar reasons. Hospitals could and quite often did turn people away for the race, gender and even religion. Doctors made house calls because they could afford to. Few law suits and low overhead insurance wise because they could pick and choose their patients. Yes sir. For White American males things looked pretty good.

Ah but then the injustice of this situation began to be eliminated with various legislation making it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion or even income when hiring, giving credit, housing and nearly everything else. Farm workers got organized. All of this very good but little though was given to the consequences of these laws. And business being business did what it generally does - pass all these additional costs and overhead on to the consumer and then their employees. Did anyone really expect them to do otherwise ? To just absorb these costs ?

Add to that the increased competition from overseas and the gradual elimination of a number of cold war defense contracts and we have the situation as it stands today. The right wants to go back to the way it was, but this will not work and would most likely require military intervention to force that issue. Quite frankly I don't think they have the stomach for it.

The left seems to believe that business can be forced to play fair, which they never have done. See the right above.

Add to this the global nature of business right now with each country still insisting on some economic autonomy and we have a very complex problem indeed. But I believe that hands will be forced on this sooner or later. That some form of global financial regulation where everybody is forced to play be the same rules will come about simply because nobody has the stomach for another world or even regional war. That even the right when faced with the alternatives will grudgingly acquiesce.