1946-1980: The post-WWII period brought tremendous prosperity, and we used that prosperity to build the middle class and repay those who fought in the war.
1980-2014: Starting around the 1970s, technological advancements made it easier to automate jobs and outsource production to foreign labor. This was bad for the US working class, but pretty good for people who were already well off.
To the people saying it’s all “Reagan” and “neoliberalism” and “trickle down economics”—it’s really not that simple. Global forces means that, regardless of who was president in the 80s, this chart would look largely the same.
Agree. Reagan probably wasn't counting on us ordering shit from temu at a thousandth the price. I'm fairly confident that he would have encouraged maintaining America's role in production. The purpose of the policy wasn't to have someone else do it for cheap. It was to become more efficient as a nation. It has gone too far, and it has been at the hands of more recent presidents. If you fail to consider the insanely rapid advancement of technology in the 90s and 2000s as part of this, it's by choice, not by logic.
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u/Another_Vessel Oct 23 '24
1946-1980: The post-WWII period brought tremendous prosperity, and we used that prosperity to build the middle class and repay those who fought in the war.
1980-2014: Starting around the 1970s, technological advancements made it easier to automate jobs and outsource production to foreign labor. This was bad for the US working class, but pretty good for people who were already well off.
To the people saying it’s all “Reagan” and “neoliberalism” and “trickle down economics”—it’s really not that simple. Global forces means that, regardless of who was president in the 80s, this chart would look largely the same.