With free enterprise, millions of private individuals personally decide where virtually all of the resources are allocated. With central planning, a few dozen government bureaucrats decide where much, if not most, of the resources are allocated.
Back in 1964, resources were allocated by private individuals, with total (all levels) government spending only representing 25% of GDP. But then government grew. As total government spending approached 35% of GDP, the healthcare buying power of wages started to tank:
Other factors helping to cause the buying power of wages to tank are going off of the Gold Standard in 1971, and the resulting, progressive, hyper-financialization of the economy, as bankers’ dollars stayed higher in value than the dollars spent by people who make and sell things.
And add to that the federal government granting banks carve-outs by borrowing from them (banks buying US bonds) at 4.72% interest while the banks themselves could borrow money at 1% interest (a 3.72% guaranteed return, whether the real economy could pay for it, or not):
[click to enlarge]
This rapaciousness of bankers and bureaucrats keeps regular people from getting ahead in life, and forces an ultimatum on our future: financial freedom or slavery (or free markets vs. Great Reset).
Reference
[Medical-Care Price Index] — Tom’s Inflation Calculator. https://www.halfhill.com/inflation_js.html