this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2024
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While this is true in the USA and marginally true in some other countries, running the actual numbers show only a small drop in material resources for the median resident, and sometimes an increase.
It's really only the USA that's doing truly extensive looting and redistribution to their workers, which leads to the revelation that countries like France don't even benefit from their regional hegemonies, it all goes to the rich.
I think you're missing the strength of the social welfare systems created in Europe and Scandinavia. That constitutes a substantial portion of distribution to the masses beyond salaries. In the USA salaries are huge but there's little social safety net, so even though the USA is doing most of the looting, it has way more poverty. European hegemonies are used to prop up the social democracies that were created to appease workers and prevent a communist revolution. As Europeans lose their social welfare, the only thing that's going to prevent a communist revolution is convincing the workers to fight another world war against other workers.
Amusingly, I noted that the standard welfare recipient in Australia was within 20%of the median world income (at least when I checked)