The loss of U.S. international hegemony was the major underlying cause of the decline of the U.S. postwar system of labor relations (i.e., the "capital-labor accord"). A fall in the cost of job loss and a weakening of the Keynesian State contributed only a little to the breakdown of the accord. Further, the decline of the accord was hastened by opportunistic attacks by individual capitalists even though these attacks hurt capitalists as a class by weakening institutions that contributed to profitable accumulation.
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