Can Capitalists Afford Economic Growth?

Despite the global dominance of capitalism, economic growth continues to trend downward. Mainstream economists blame the slowdown on various ‘distortions’, but as this animation shows, the reality is quite different. Capitalists seek not more income per se, but greater power-through-redistribution, which they achieve by strategically stymying growth. *** 00:00 Introduction: where did all the growth go? 01:26 The conventional creed: “growth is the key measure of economic health“ 01:46 The American slowdown: how have capitalists and workers fared? 04:22 The dogma’s underlying utilitarian assumptions 04:56 Some inconvenient data 05:40 Capital as Power 06:01 Two social groups: (1) workers, the unemployed, and those not in the labour force. 06:30 (2) Capitalist motivation: differential power 07:43 Unemployment as an accurate leading indicator of capitalist differential power 08:47 Revisiting the social consensus in favour of economic growth 09:11 The historica