The USA has not had pure capitalism in the 20th or 21st centuries. We've always had a modified form of capitalism. Once upon a time, it worked for us. The middle class rose in numbers and income because the massive industrial capacity of the USA already existed, thanks to WWII, and was ready to provide for the product and housing needs of all the returning GIs. Because of the high tax rates, approaching 90% for the highest earners, two things happened: investors chose to invest in manufacturing, to avoid high taxes, and the government was able to fund the GI bill, and other programs to aid those returning GIs to get education and housing. Unions helped insure that workers' labor was fairly compensated. Generally, corporations realized that it was beneficial to themselves and society to keep their employees working and fairly paid. Unfortunately, about the time Reagan came along, Our Betters™ (the wealthy class) decided that they could increase their incomes exponentially by lowering their tax burden, by paying labor much lower pay, by moving production to 3rd world countries and paying those workers slave wages, and finally, by getting politicians elected who would advance this agenda. Our Betters™ created a propaganda corps of AM radio personalities and media hacks to convince the newly underpaid working stiffs that the real reason their incomes have stagnated is because of gummit regulations and some vague plot by lib'ruls to "steal your joy" (as a local Houston AM radio hack puts it).
It is no coincidence that since Reagan's time, middle class incomes have stagnated, the incomes of the wealthy (Our Betters™) have skyrocketed, union membership has declined, and there's no money to properly compensate teachers, police, firemen... It's all been planned by Our Betters™ in a massive redistribution of wealth from working stiffs to those at the top. This plan is what I call crapitalism.
America needs Presidents like Eisenhower, who warned against the dangers of the military/industrial complex, and Roosevelt, who formed the New Deal, and introduced Social Security, so our seniors wouldn't starve and do without life's essentials in their (our) old age, a Congress not bought by the likes of Donald Trump, and a return to the type of hybrid capitalism that built a great America and the middle class.
