主题：从萧条到繁荣，再到萧条 -- 西瓜子

pressure in the developed nations: that's the reason why the priviledged classes are willing to share political power with the socialists and share economic growth with average Joes.

Middle class came into existence in both US and Europe.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of easy life for the American/European middle class just started.

Such shift was most obvious in the US in the last 30 years. One signal: the shift of defined benefits pension plan to defined contribution plan for more and more american private sector employees.

Now American Republicans have started to attack the public sector employee pension system/medicare benefits system. In the past, nobody will even pay attention to this part.

China factor is a major force in reshaping the political landscape in both US and Europe: the dirty cheap industrial products produced in China is destroying the middle-class in the U.S. and Europe (less effect in Europe now). More and more economic power is shifting from labor to the top management/shareholders/bankers.

Again, that's most obvious in the U.S.

Today's G-2 is an holy alliance of the capitalists/political elites/banking elites in both the U.S. and China in ruling over the labor class in these two countries.

American politicians are even smarter: they constantly play American labor against Chinese labor... divide and conquer.

Many Chinese on this forum applaud for the G-2, while effectively, as a member of the working class/Chinese middle class, they are counting their own 卖身 money.