Second, speaking of that, we need to examine the popular scapegoats of NAFTA and China. Why did they happen? Capitalism is driven by efficiency. It will evolve and find the best way to reduce or eliminate labor. Cheaper to build things in Mexico and/or overseas than it is here at home. That is the rule, less labor the better. Jobs have also been automated out of existence since, well... forever. With the furthest example I can think of being when
John Deere improved the plow.
What I strive to explain is a simple truth. Capitalism is evolving and in that evolution it will devour itself. By eliminating labor, and thus its own consumers from the equation. The booming Middle Class which defined American exceptionalism is a dying relic of a bygone era, and solutions need to recognize the strengths of that era, and how our economy declined.
It's the jobs. You cannot get paid the same value for the same job today, as you would have been paid in the 1950s. Minimum Wage would be well north of $20/hr if we wanted the American consumer to keep pace with these economic changes. But that price for labor could no longer function in today's economy. It is not competitive. And so by the very laws of Capitalism, alone, we will be destroyed.
Then we look for solutions. Again, based on the exceptional American Middle Class of the mid-20th-century, we know that Americans prosper if income inequality is at a lower threshold. We also know that Capitalism alone is logically going to force us in the wrong direction. How, then, do we make America great again? Our consumers need to have their lost wages restored. Employment alone will not, and cannot, do it.
Far as I am aware, there is but one solution. We tax our productivity and return that lost value back to our consumers as Basic Income. We protect and ensure Capitalism's future by installing a safety net today. A minimum floor to which everyone may contribute as a consumer regardless of their situation, and people gain the security and peace of mind to make long term decisions that best benefit them. The concept is entirely market based, I love the economy freedom of Capitalism, it just requires that we plug the vacuum sucking literally everything up into the gaping maw of Wall Street. They cannot be allowed to suck the rest of the country dry of our economic lifeblood, but that is exactly what will occur if we sit idly by and do nothing.
As for us, we need to stop this mindless rancor over purity of Capitalism, recognize the danger we face, and work together to solve it.