The U.S. is following a classic late-stage empire playbook by financializing its economy while outsourcing manufacturing. This practice creates an illusion of prosperity through cheaper goods and labor, but it masks the underlying decay of the domestic economy and middle class.

The significant gap between CEO and worker pay is a direct result of globalization. When companies can easily outsource labor, domestic workers lose their negotiating power, or "fear of loss." This allows capital owners and executives to capture a larger share of the value created, widening the income disparity.

The failure of "trickle-down economics" to lift the middle class was not due to the rich getting richer, but because globalization simultaneously exported jobs and imported cheap labor. This hollowed out the domestic blue-collar job market, preventing wealth from circulating within the national economy.

Wage stagnation is not accidental but a result of two concurrent policies. By sending manufacturing jobs overseas and simultaneously bringing in low-wage labor, corporations create a market where domestic workers lose nearly all leverage to demand higher pay for remaining jobs.

As an economy shifts from manufacturing to trading financial paper, wealth concentrates at the top. Those who own assets see their net worth multiply, while real wages for the majority stagnate or decline as jobs are globalized and labor is arbitraged for the lowest cost.

The global demand for US financial assets (the Eurodollar system) deindustrialized the US. This weakened the military and manufacturing base that originally underpinned America's global power and the 'rules-based order' the dollar system relies on, creating a self-destructive loop.

By shipping millions of jobs overseas, globalism forced American workers to compete with a much larger, cheaper international labor pool. This eliminated employers' need to compete for a finite domestic workforce, leading to wage stagnation. The proposed solution is to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.

The growing gap between company productivity and employee wages isn't solely due to corporate greed. The ability to outsource work globally gives companies immense leverage, weakening the negotiating power of domestic workers and suppressing their wages.

The argument that developed nations can thrive by outsourcing manufacturing and focusing on services is a fallacy. True value is added in manufacturing. The only service sector that truly expanded was finance, which primarily fuels unproductive asset speculation, leading to inevitable booms and busts.