[lbo-talk] Neoliberalism Hits a Speedbump?

[Somebody Somebody]

Marvin: So there's nothing inherently more astute about Asian bosses of big state-owned or private firms. Their needs require that they make concessions to their workers. US capitalists aren't faced with a confident, assertive working class in a rapidly expanding economy where permanent manufacturing jobs are plentiful, as they once were. Now American workers are scrambling to find work, and it is not they, but their employers, who are demanding and winning concessions in the ongoing struggle between the classes.

...

Yes, but why aren't the bourgeoisie in the U.S. presiding over a "rapidly expanding economy"?

I think we have a thorough critique of the dismantling of public services, the safety net, and the assault on unions and the working class in general, but I have seen relatively little discussion on why is it that the U.S and Europe and Japan all suffer from persistant stagnation.

I believe the U.S. annualized growth is now under 2%. But we don't have to look only at the weak recovery from this recession, since growth was anemic in the 2000's under Bush as well. In fact, the only really strong period of growth in recent times was the latter half of the 90's, when computers and the Internet made their major contribution to productivity, which not coincidentally was the only recent period of wage gains in America. 

Why is that capitalism, beyond a certain level of development, seems unable to continue to grow and progress as in the past? 

It's interesting to me that the response of socialists, who in the past would have said as in the Great Depression, that the failure of further progress under capitalism proved the need for revolution, now instead extol zero or low growth sustainable economies. Well, capitalism seems to be heading towards low growth, anyway.