Elite interests didn't always need to pass new laws. Often, they just had to block updates to old ones—a tactic called "drift"—letting inflation and market changes erode middle-class protections like the minimum wage or labor laws.
In their book , political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson present a "detective story" that investigates why American economic inequality has skyrocketed since the late 1970s. The Central Mystery: Who Stole the Middle-Class Dream? Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made t...
This political muscle led to deregulated financial markets, tax cuts for the hyper-wealthy, and a system where "banks are organized; their customers are not". Elite interests didn't always need to pass new laws
The "crime" wasn't committed by the market, but by . The story highlights a massive organizational shift starting around 1978: tax cuts for the hyper-wealthy