it was NOT just Ford workers uplifted who could buy cars and other discretionary and it was the ENTIRETY of NEW and UPLIFTED middle class that largely did not exist prior.
And that was not solely a consequence of 'Ford or like minded companies' simply paying more and came more from the very PROGRESSIVE taxation system implemented and imposed on the top tiers of wealth, with that money then distributed to social programs and infrastructure and other GOVERNMENT initiatives that CREATED AND UPLIFTED an enter class.
If you want contrast look to India where you see extreme wealth and desperate poverty with no real sustained MC in between, because the government stayed mostly out of the redistribution game and you see corporations cannot do it on their own.
India has so much poverty for reasons completely detached from government. The number one reason is there remains today a caste system in the country.
That is, your language and race determine your position in society. When you combine it with tribalism, roughly 70% of the population, mostly rural, are screwed by this system. The government has tried and failed to end it and has, off and on, been trying since roughly 1947.
Feeding off that is a very high illiteracy rate. The language you speak may not be the one taught in schools, that is if you can even go. This is particularly true with females who are seen as little more than breeding stock in many parts of the country, particularly ones with a high Muslim population.
Then there's the gender gap. Women are seen as almost second class citizens with limited access to many of the mechanisms of society, particularly financial.
One of the worst aspects of society there is that debt is inheritable. That means if a family goes into debt the cycle is endless. This can often result in what amounts to slavery on the part of the debtor.
China is following the US model, within their version of communism. Mass efforts to create a huge MC, recognizing the GDP gains over time with success, will make China the most dominant country in the world.
China is not following the US model. It is following the Nazi Germany model. Government spends like a drunken sailor on high visibility projects that have no chance of any positive ROI. It builds public and private projects that look great on paper so long as you don't look at the books and costs. They have a high-speed rail system that hemorrhages money and few use because the price of tickets is unaffordable. Stations often stand all but empty. It's like the grand public works projects Hitler's Germany embarked on.
They also have little regard for environmentalism while talking a good game. For example, the CCP wants to build a massive, ambitious, hydroelectric generation system in the Himalayas. The result will likely be India and Bangladesh get screwed while the project hemorrhages red ink.
At the same time, China is on a massive military buildup with obvious intent towards offensive war to take real estate they think is theirs. Taiwan is a clear example of that.
