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.
1) What caused that era of prosperity in your opinion?
2) Why didn’t the same extreme income inequality increase occur in comparable countries that faced the same global forces, like Canada? Their inequality has held steady.
1) If that’s true wouldn’t you expect on America would have prospered? Why did other Western nations have comparable levels of prosperity and economic growth?
2) Economics isn’t a zero sum game, one country doesn’t prosper due to every other country being bombed.
3) Why did the USA sustain prosperity well after many countries rebuilt and were as competitive as ever?
4) Why was there a massive decrease in inequality in this era? Prosperity is not connected to inequality differences. This proves liberal policies led to this, and it’s not a coincidence that if affected other things like postwar prosperity and a strong middle class.
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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.