In the 1930s and 1940s, we restructured our economy to widen prosperity. The result was the Great Prosperity -- a period running from 1947 to 1975, in which the American economy boomed. Almost everyone shared those gains. But after 1980, the pendulum swung backward. Instead of helping the middle class prosper in the new global, high-tech economy, government did just the opposite. It narrowed prosperity. The result was stagnant wages. The middle class steadily lost ground, while more and more of the benefits of economic growth flowed to the top.
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The Age of Regan lives on- for now at least- but after 30 years it has become long in the tooth- its false promises have come home to roost.
The current far right fringe element may have short term political gains- but their inability to change with the society of today- and make reforms that will cost all; Government cuts- from the Federal to local level- (With public employees not getting such rich retirements funded by the tax payers) much higher taxes for the wealthy (taxes when JFK was President are far lower today-around 65% lower- taxes for upper wage earners will need to be risen as well.
Health care- the bill passed in march is not a good bill- it does not address access or costs- what is needed is single payer for all- in Europe single payer health care sees 50% cost savings compared to here.
The problems we have will not be solved by creating more of the same kind of Reagen Ideology of the last 3 decades- if so capitalism could collapse - Reich is very smart- too bad many Americans seek simplistic answers for complex issues they will soon learn will hurt them further.
Of course, 1947 to 1975 is less than 30 years. If you consider history, the rich are almost always in the position they are now. Too bad.
Meanwhile, the puppetmasters who issue our money ex nihilo through the promissory notes by which WE THE PEOPLE SIGN OUR LIVES AWAY, continue their lucrative march into Neo-Feudalism.
Repeal the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which has made us and our government indentured servants to a banking class, and which distorts every aspect of our individual and collective lives.
The greatest threat is from those who passionately believe themselves to be right, all the while clinging to a theory that ensures their disaster.
http://www.plata.com.mx/mplata/articulos/articlesFilt.asp?fiidarticulo=161
http://theendisalwaysnear.blogspot.com/2010/09/lessons-on-killing-golden-goose.html
There will always be income inequality because of varying conditions of opportunity and talent, but in our debt-based monetary system it is inherent from the very foundation. A privileged elite is given the power to ISSUE money.
By giving workers the right to vote a secret ballot without intimidation? By not making unions mandatory?
Sounds like the old union told boogeyman story to me.
Because we've systematically destroyed public education, we've created generations of folks who don't have the slightest idea how to think critically about any issue. We're trained to respond on the basis of emotion rather than fact to the news of the day. That's why it was so easy for the Tea Party to convince middle and lower income citizens that it was in their best interest to support the corporatist, deregulating, anti-labor, anti-Social Security and anti-Medicare candidates propped up by the REAL backers of this so-called "grass roots" movement. They are wildly enamored of people who are openly and directly working against their interests. It's genius: a massive anti-populist movement that has co-opted the tactics and rhetoric of populism while furthering the goals of economic totalitarianism. If we don't wake up soon, we'll all end up in Paladino's prison "dorms" learning "personal hygeine".
Ronald Reagan took us from the reciprocal trade of Bretton Woods--GATT/WTO, which had some major defects, to the even more defective myth of laissez-faire free-trade which hollowed out the middle-class creating the giant sucking sound H. Ross Perot warned about with NAFTA that cost 879,280 jobs according to EPI. Need proof or Reagan's free-trade voodoo?
It was Reagan who was four square behind the notion of free trade. We had a hell of a time getting Canadian free trade, but we did. Reagan really did that with the force of his personality. That was expanded later to Mexican free trade and what we now call NAFTA. It was Reagan who floated the notion of hemispheric free trade, the notion that at some point in the future Canada, the United States, Mexico, and all of Latin America would be linked into a free trading zone. ~ Larry Kudlow (July 15, 1997)
President Clinton extened Reagan's voodoo legacy with regard to free-trade which was a stupid idea. Bush followed Reagan's voodoo drums, and to an extent, President Obama, still marches to their sound while the Chinese laugh at how stupid we are.
Somehow we have allowed the criminals to hi-jack our corporate boards and financial institutions.
The well known revolving door between government and the business elite has established corporate cronyism as the rule of the day. We allowed these fascists to hi-jack the people's government.
We have met the enemy, and it is us!
We know where we went wrong, we know how to limit the damage (I'm not at all sure we know how to "fix" this mess), and we know the terrible price we're paying for continuing to make the same errors over and over again.
And "We know" that neither major party has ANY INTENTION of allowing anyone to change any of this.
This time, corporate money has been insulated somewhat, and their marketing machine is fully funded and engaged in making sure they get what they want-no matter how long it extends our current malaise. The Tea Parties are the result of a great, long-term marketing program. If you try hard enough, you can get ordinary citizens to support their own destruction. Cool trick, but what the folks with money don't get is that as the economy fails, so do they. It's just a bit slower.